Ongoing maintenance issues with USS Freedom (LCS-1) will prevent the Navy’s newest surface combatant from participating in the Canadian Fleet Review later this month.
“Due to emergent maintenance, over the last two weeks, the decision was made to not have Freedom attend the International Fleet Review in Vancouver, Canada, in order to ensure the ship is fully prepared to participate in the upcoming RIMPAC exercise,” Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello, a service spokesman, told sister publication Defense Daily recently.
Work was completed over the weekend, and the ship plans to get underway later this week for post maintenance testing and transit to the Rim of the Pacific maritime exercise slated to begin June 23, he added.
“Minor leaks were discovered in both the port and starboard splitter gear lube oil coolers. The regional maintenance center, Lockheed Martin and subcontractors were able to successfully troubleshoot the problem and make the needed repairs,” Servello said.
Additionally, cracks and minor structural damage were discovered in one of the centerline fuel tanks, he added.
“Repair and post-repair inspections on the tank were completed over the weekend. The exact cause is under review,” Servello said. “Time has and will be taken to pass along pertinent lessons learned to the LCS program office and shipyard so that these types of issues may be corrected or avoided in the future.”
In May, Freedom was put into dry-dock for five days to repair the starboard boost water jet (Defense Daily, May 5).
That problem was discovered upon Freedom‘s return from her first deployment and coincided with the scheduled maintenance availability, Servello said at the time.
Freedom spent more time in dry-dock than originally anticipated to repair the starboard boost water jet (Defense Daily, May 24).