By Geoff Fein
The Navy will deploy the USS Freedom (LCS-1) this week to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) to conduct counter narcotics and theater security cooperation operations.
Freedom is the first of the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) designed to operate close to shore and to be outfitted with a variety of mission packages. For her maiden deployment, Freedom will carry a tailored surface warfare package and what has been deemed a prototype maritime security module (Defense Daily, Oct. 15).
“We had two major focuses for this deployment, the first being our underway portion of counter-narcotics or counter illicit trafficking, looking for drug smugglers going from the AOR that eventually reaches the U.S….interdicting the flow of narcotics,” Lt. Cmdr Matthew Weber, Freedom‘s executive officer, told reporters Friday.
The second major focus in the SOUTHCOM AOR is theater security cooperation, where Freedom will continue to build relations with partner nations in that region, Weber added.
While a lot of preparation has gone into Freedom‘s first deployment, Weber noted that the basic focus has been on test and evaluation of the hull, weapon systems and engineering plant to ensure those systems are stable, reliable and ready for overseas operations.
Preparation also included making sure the crew is trained and certified in basic operations including maritime security and strike group level operations, he added.
“The most recent phase has been finishing counter illicit trafficking training and integration with our aviation detachment and our SuW mission package…[the] VBBS (visit, board, search and seizure) personnel assigned to it as well so we can operate as a coherent unit while we are in the SOUTHCOM AOR,” Weber said.
The main focus for the initial deployment is to learn how the Navy can sustain the ship overseas and maintain its maximum state of operational readiness while it is forward deployed, Weber added.
“We’ve done a lot of testing in home waters. Now we have to see how well we can keep everything working a little farther a field and accomplish our assigned task at the same time,” he said.
Freedom will carry a MH-60S Block IIIB, according to Lt. Cmdr Roy Zaletski, Officer in Charge, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22, Det 2.
The helicopter will carry a multi-spectral targeting system, Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR), be capable of carrying Hellfire missiles, a 50-cal. and M240 gun, he told reporters.
“We will be flying with Coast Guard spotter and sniper aerial gunner. We are qualified to do the airborne use of force mission in conjunction with the counter illicit trafficking mission,” Zaletski said.
However Freedom won’t carry the Fire Scout tactical Vertical Unmanned Aircraft System (VUAS), he noted.
“At the very early part of deployment, there was a discussion that we would have Fire Scout as part of the detachment,” Zaletski said. “That’s not going to be part of the deployment. My understanding is we will operate in and around the [USS] McInerney (FFG-8) at one point. However, I do not believe there is an opportunity for Fire Scout to operate off Freedom on this deployment.”
The primary thing the crew have already learned, just in getting ready for this deployment, is the inherent flexibility of having a lot of empty volume and a lot of available tonnage to build a mission package virtually from scratch in six months, Weber said.
“There wasn’t a maritime security mission package a year ago. It was not a program of record, yet we are deploying with it,” he said.
Because the ship has the volume and weight, the Navy was able to give the basic parameter to engineers and they built the new mission package for Freedom, Weber added.
The Navy was also able to pull personnel from other commands and give Freedom the maritime security capability on very short notice, he added.
“When we are done with this deployment, we can pull that set off and reconfigure it to mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare or a more robust surface warfare mission package or something we may not even have thought of yet,” Weber explained.
Freedom was built by a team led by Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Marinette Marine.