Fourth breakdown in US Navy littoral combat ship

The ship is restricted to 10 knots and operating with fleet oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser.

Coronado’s troubles are the latest in a series of high-profile engineering setbacks for the Navy’s controversial new ships, which have been under siege since the Freedom-class ship Milwaukee broke down just weeks after commissioning on a transit from Halifax, Canada, to Norfolk, Virginia.

On Monday the Navy revealed that another of its littoral combat ships, the USS Freedom, suffered engine damage in July when seawater got inside the oil lubrication system, resulting in rust in the diesel engine.

The breakdown is the second in less than two days for a project that is worth $360 million per ship. The cost and timeline for the fix of the engine are unknown at this time.

The most recent casualty, the USS Coronado, participated in this year’s Rim of the Pacific naval exercise, using the ship’s General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines rather than its MTU main propulsion diesel engines. The ship is at San Diego awaiting a decision on the repairs.

The Navy doesn’t yet have a cost or timeline estimate for the repairs, but a similar incident, where an engine was damaged within the USS Fort Worth cost millions of dollars to fix. “These issues are all receiving our full and immediate attention, both individually and in the aggregate”.

Richardson said he established a programwide review this summer to incorporate deployment lessons learned and identify systemic problems with how the program was structured. “Vice Adm. Tom Rowden has completed the review, which recommends changes to the crewing, deployment, mission module, training and testing concepts.These changes will provide more ownership and stability, while also allowing for more forward presence”. “In light of recent problems, we also recognize more immediate action needs to be taken as well”.

Navy officials have yet to disclose the results of investigations into the three prior LCS engineering casualties. “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”. “These ships bring needed capability to our combatant and theater commanders [and] we must get these problems fixed now”, he said.

Freedom’s breakdown followed mechanical failures in the USS Fort Worth and USS Milwaukee, all since December.

The USS Coronado deployed from San Diego to the Pacific two months ago with a crew of about 70 sailors.