Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)

Lockheed Martin to develop Frigate LCS combat management systems
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"... LM will also provide combat system technical data packages. ..."
... and I wonder if they hit with a Harpoon then
 
Yes...they most definitely need to test them and do so successfully.

But they will. The decision has been made to up arm them and the US Navy will get it done.

But they do not need to make a party out of it...or a press orgy of some kind. They just need to do the job...which I have every confidence that they ultimately will do.
my gosh Jeff No Funds Available for Naval Strike Missile Test on USS Freedom, Demo Stalled
The planned demonstration installation of an over-the-horizon missile on a Littoral Combat Ship is stalled due to lack of funds, U.S. Navy officials confirmed to USNI News on Friday.

The Navy intended to install a Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile battery on USS Freedom (LCS-1) ahead of the ship’s next scheduled Western Pacific deployment but those plans are on hold due to a lack of funds, Lt. Rebecca Haggard, with Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, told USNI News on Friday.

The service had budgeted $101.4 million in fiscal year 2016 for over-the-horizon missile testing on Freedom and the Independence-class USS Coronado (LCS-4).

However, in the process of installing the legacy Harpoon anti-surface missile on Coronado, the service ran out of money to complete both installations, several sources familiar with the program told USNI News in the last several weeks.

Due to the shortfall, an additional $23 million was included in a May Department of Defense budget reprogramming request to the four congressional defense committees.

“This testing will provide a proof-of-concept for an over-the-horizon missile on the LCS, making it a more lethal and capable platform, responding to the fleet demand signal,” read the request submission.

The request for the extra money was ultimately not approved.

“Three committees have endorsed the requirement, but the proposed funding source was denied,” Haggard said.
“One committee has deferred the request.”

Adding an anti-surface capability on the Littoral Combat Ship quickly is part of the larger U.S. surface navy’s distributed lethality push.

In January, then director of surface warfare Rear Adm. Peter Fanta told USNI News that installing an OTH missile on LCS was “an absolute requirement” for the service.

Coronado will deploy later this year with the Harpoon installation the Navy was able to complete in time for a demonstration of the Rim of the Pacific 2016 exercise.

Haggard told USNI News the Navy is set to release a request for proposal for a permanent OTH missile for the LCS platform.

Likely competitors for the contract are Boeing with an upgraded version of the Harpoon, a Kongsberg-Raytheon team for the NSM and Lockheed Martin with the company’s Long Range Strike Missile (LRASM) it’s developed in conjunction with DARPA.
source is USNI News
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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
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Pacific Sentinel said:
PEARL HARBOR - Littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Aug. 26 to continue its independent deployment to the Western Pacific. The ship's departure follows participation in exercise Rim of the Pacific 2016.

Coronado and its crew of about 70 Sailors assigned to LCS Squadron 1 began their deployment June 22 after departing their homeport of Naval Base San Diego.

Cmdr. Scott Larson, commanding officer of Coronado and LCS Crew 204, said he is motivated to demonstrate to the fleet and coalition maritime partners the unique capabilities the Independence-variant LCS provides.

With the eighth of these vessels about to be accepted by the US Navy (USS Detroit will be commissioned in October) and with four more already launched and fitting out, six more under construction and eight more already funded...that's a total of 26 LCS (13 of each variant)...these vessels are getting worked hard.

They are putting sea legs on thse ships and ensuring that they will do what they are supposed to do.

As I have said many times, now that finally they are going to be up-armed, and get better sensors so they fit more of a frigate role, these vessels are going to finally fill (either as LCS or as FF) the gap left by the Oliver Hazard Perry lass of Frigates.

The US Navy needs a strong force of fifty+ frigates, to supplement its 22 cruisers and 70 or so destroyers.

So...US Navy...keep working these babies out! It'll pay ff, and I predict they will ultimately be a respected vessel with the US Naval community.
 
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... I predict they will ultimately be a respected vessel with the US Naval community.
in the meantime LCS Freedom's Engine May Need Replacement
This time it’s USS Freedom.

In yet another blow for its seemingly perpetually-troubled littoral combat ship program, the US Navy revealed Sunday that one of two main propulsion diesel engines on the San Diego-based Freedom has been damaged so badly it either has to be completely rebuilt or replaced.

It’s the third time since December that a Freedom-class LCS has suffered a serious malfunction. In December, the brand-new Milwaukee broke down at sea and had to be towed to a Virginia port. In January, the Fort Worth — in the midst of what was until then a remarkably successful deployment to Singapore — was severely damaged by an in-port accident to her propulsion system. The ship languished the last seven months in Singapore, and only got underway on Aug. 22.

The Freedom’s latest problems began July 11 when a sailor noted a drain leaking into the bilge from a seawater pump seal attached to the ship’s No. 2 main propulsion diesel engine as the LCS was operating off Southern California. Sources familiar with the incident told Defense News the leak was plugged using a damage control plug.

Seawater then entered the engine’s lubrication oil system, said Lt. Rebecca Haggard, a spokesperson for San Diego-based Naval Surface Forces (SURFOR), but the ship continued to operate.

In a statement, SURFOR said Freedom returned to San Diego on July 13 on her own power to conduct repairs on a separate, unrelated issue and, while in port, carried out procedures to decontaminate the lube oil system of seawater. The Freedom then got underway on July 19 for more than a week of Rim of the Pacific Exercises off Southern California, returning to San Diego July 28.

But back in port, an investigation of the engine on Aug. 3 “found significant damage to the engine caused by rust and seawater,” SURFOR said. So many engine components were damaged that, SURFOR added, the engine “will need to be removed and rebuilt or replaced.”

Freedom’s main propulsion diesel engines are made by Colt-Pielstick. The ship has a combined diesel and gas turbine power plant — two diesels and two turbines — allowing the LCS to reach speeds above 40 knots on gas turbines and diesels, or using just the more-economical diesels for slower speeds.

SURFOR is still working to decide how and where the repairs will be carried out, Haggard said, but the ship will likely require drydocking, either at the Navy’s drydock at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego or the floating dock at nearby General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), which has the primary LCS support contract.

One issue to look out for is how long the Navy takes to decide on the repairs. When the Fort Worth was damaged in Singapore on Jan. 12, the Navy took three months just to decide where to fix the ship. And although the decision to fix the ship in San Diego was announced in April, the Fort Worth has only just begun its trans-Pacific voyage and is not expected to reach California for several weeks.

Meanwhile, SURFOR’s investigation as to how the Freedom’s diesel engine came to be damaged is still ongoing, Haggard said, adding that she was not aware of any reason the repair decision would need to be delayed for the mishap investigation results. The investigation, she added, will determine whether the damage was caused “by a mechanical failure or crew error or both.”

LCS Crew 106 was operating the ship during the incident, Haggard said, and is still on board. Under the LCS program’s rotating-crew scheme, crews generally come aboard for about four months before switching to either another LCS or a shore rotation.

Haggard noted that Freedom “is not scheduled to deploy during the time frame of the repairs.”

SURFOR commander Vice Adm. Tom Rowden is heading the investigation, Haggard said. Rowden also led a recent review of the LCS program directed by chief of naval operations Adm. John Richardson, which is expected to be made public in September.

The Navy’s top leadership is known to be especially unhappy with this latest incident.

“Given the engineering casualties on USS Freedom and USS Fort Worth, I believe improvements in engineering oversight and training are necessary," Rowden said in the SURFOR statement.

“The recently-completed LCS Review of manning, design, and training looked at a number of sailor performance and ownership factors, to include crew rotation, size and proficiency. From this work, I believe we will be able to make immediate changes to help reduce chance for future operator error. I am fully committed to ensuring that our ships and the sailors who man them have the proper tools and training they need to safely and effectively operate these ships.”
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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
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My friend you don't know ( and my joke ) the propulsion of the Kuznetszov is renowned for to be unreliable and in deployment she is always with a tug.
oh so you were facetious ... likening the US Navy and Russian Navy issues is too much for me; I'll leave it and that, will look for
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