To facilitate these changes across the class, the Navy will eventually homeport Independence-variant ships in San Diego and Freedom-variant ships in Mayport, Fla., 24 of the 28 LCS ships will form into six divisions with three divisions on each coast. The LCS crews also will merge, train and rotate with mission module detachment crews, organizing as four-ship divisions of a single warfare area – either surface warfare, mine warfare or anti-submarine warfare. It became clear the LCS crewing construct is the variable that most impacts the other factors such as manning, training, maintenance, and – most importantly – operations forward. Six of 28 ships now planned have been delivered. The test ships will be manned by single crews.
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Three tests are scheduled for the ship over the next coming weeks, but the Navy says it’s unable to give the exact dates and times as they are dependent on weather, marine mammal activity and the sea state.
Get inside the action onboard the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships.
Mayport is preparing for 12 of the next generation ships set to arrive over the next five years. This comes at an important time for the base, which has seen ship levels drop with the decommissioning of Navy frigates. Two crews per ship mean one will be able to complete homeport training and workups while the other crew deploys. The crews will either concentrate on surface warfare, mine warfare or anti-submarine warfare.
Our core focus was to maximize forward operational availability, while looking for ways to increase simplicity, stability and ownership.
The U.S. Navy has completed a review of its Littoral Combat Ship program after the fourth mechanical breakdown on a ship in the previous year spurred a stand-down order.
The Freedom and the Coronado were the third and fourth Littoral Combat Ships to experience engineering problems within a 12-month span.
The USS Milwaukee had to be towed 40 miles to a naval base in Virginia in December, and the USS Fort Worth was sidelined in Singapore in January.
According to the Navy, the new crew changes will allow for more ships to be deployed and will simplify maintenance responsibilities while enhancing continuity with two crews working the same ship.
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“When I took a step back”, visited vessels and talked to sailors “I saw complexity, I saw instability” and saw commanders “pulled in 15 different directions”, Vice Admiral Tom Rowden, chief of Naval Surface Forces, said in an interview at the Pentagon after a briefing Thursday for reporters. That order included that all engineering staff be re-trained, and that the Navy review its training and the procedures on board. Implementing the approved recommendations from this review and continuing to examine other areas for improvement will better position the LCS program for success – both now and in the future.
