By Geoff Fein
The Navy will be replacing USS Freedom‘s (LCS-1) number one gas turbine engine after the service discovered damaged blades following a borescope inspection earlier this month.
“The inspection was conducted after high-vibration indications prompted a shutdown during normal operation,” Cmdr. Jason Salata, a Navy spokesman, told Defense Daily Friday.
Freedom had been operating off the Southern California coast when the engine shutdown occurred, Salata said.
The repair work, which the Navy has allotted seven to 10 days to complete, will take place at Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme, Calif., he added.
LCS-1 is designed with removable panels to facilitate engine change-outs pier side, Salata said.
“In this case, Port Hueneme is not a shipyard facility; it is a basic port facility with the characteristics of the likely locations in which a deployed LCS would conduct an engine change-out,” he said.
Before the ship’s arrival to Port Hueneme, the Navy had 10 days to plan, set up, preposition support material and conduct on board preparation for the swap, Salata added.
“In addition to personnel from PMS 501, Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce personnel, NAVSESS Philadelphia will provide MT30 expertise from the DDG-1000 Land Based Test Site,” he noted.
The MT30 engine will go back to Roll-Royce for analysis, Salata said.
“The cause of the damaged turbine blade is under review. Once the engine is removed, it will be sent back to the manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, for a detailed failure analysis,” he said.
Freedom had been scheduled for a stop at Port Hueneme to swap out its surface warfare mission package and install models of the Mine Countermeasures Mission Modules (MCM) to replicate the space and weight of the MCM to demonstrate the onload, installation and fit of those modules, Salata said
“Engine replacement will be conducted during the planned mission module work,” he added. “This will limit any impact to the ship’s operational schedule.”
The Navy is allowing seven to 10 days for the repair work because that’s how long LCS-1 was planning to be in Port Hueneme, Salata said.
Freedom is currently scheduled for its port visit to Port Hueneme on Sept. 27, where the engine will be replaced with an available spare, he added.
LCS-1 is built by Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Marinette Marine, a division of Fincantieri.