Maritime News: the U.S. NAVY LCS Class’s Latest Setback

by Morris Arnold

Most of us stopped keeping score of the numerous problems to pop up during the design and build of the littoral combat ship. The most recent of the setbacks involves the investigation of whether there is a fundamental flaw in the design of the Freedom class combing in gear (a complex transmission which is designed to connect the power from two large gasoline turbine engines and two main propulsion diesel engines to the ship’s propulsion shaft, which propels the ship through the water with water jests).

The ships, in theory, should go as fast as 40 knots and that seems to be part of the problem. Back in July in an interview with Defense News, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said “I go back to: Do I really need a littoral combat ship to go 40 knots?” He went on to say “That’s going to drive the entire design of the ship, not just the engineering plant but how it’s built. That becomes a critical factor. So, if you take your eye off the ball with respect to requirements, you can find yourself drifting.”.

Unfortunately, the dream of the LCS surely is becoming a Navy Nightmare. While some whisper that the LCS should be scrapped completely and replaced with another ship, Admiral Gilday seems to be making it his mission to make sure that is a success. This is very admirable of him, as this will be no small task.

Back to the combining gear: We saw this problem rear its head most recently during failures on the littoral combat ships Little Rock and Detroit. The Detroit’s combining gear suffered a failure forcing it back to Florida and needing to be, embarrassingly, towed back into port.  It seems the problem Is connected to the “high speed clutch bearings failing prematurely”. This is part of larger, more troublesome, overall issue that this maybe a class wide flaw.

The Naval Sea Systems Commands has said it is conducting a “root cause analysis” investigation to get to the bottom of the problem. Through the investigating the Navy will determine what exactly the problem is, how to fix it and most importantly, who will pay for it.

The good news is that some of the best in the industry are working on the problems. The Freedom class LCS was designed by Lockheed Martin and built by Fincantieri’s Marinette Marine. These are some of the biggest names in the industry with some of the brightest minds in the world at work on the problem. Lockheed Martin is working with the US Navy to find a resolution to the combining gear flaw and working fast. The Independence class LCS, built by Austal in Mobile, Alabama utilizes a different propulsion system and thankfully will not be affected by the problem.

With only the diesel engine engaged, the ship will go 10-12 knots but to reach the elusive 40 knots it must engage the gas turbines as well. There a lot of complex engineering and design involved, no doubt will require a creative solution.

I am confident with Admiral Gilday leading and the backing of Lockheed and Fincanteri’s Marinette Marine, the problem will be solved and the goal of 40 knots reached will be achieved.