By Paul McLeary on January 26, 2021 at 3:43 PM
Freedom-class littoral combat ships like the USS Detroit are about to undergo critical repairs.
[CORRECTED] WASHINGTON: Two of the Navy’s newest Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships will sit in port for months while Lockheed Martin develops, tests and installs fixes to a major propulsion issue found on all 16 ships in the class.
The Navy said last week it would not accept delivery of the next two ships on the multi-billion dollar program until the company made the fixes. The decision means the two ships, slated for spring delivery, will fall months behind schedule, another black eye for a program that has yet to prove its utility, despite the delivery of around 20 ships across two classes over the past decade.
U.S. Navy Refuses New Freedom LCS until Class-Wide Propulsion Defect is Fixed Our Bureau 2158
U.S. Navy s USS Detroit (LCS-7) warship.
The U.S. Navy has refused to accept new Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) built by Lockheed Martin until the company fixes a flaw the service found in its combining gear.
An engineering defect was found in the bearings system in USS
Detroit (LCS-7) and USS
Little Rock (LCS-9) ships. The system links the ship’s Rolls Royce MT30 gas turbines and Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, which power the main drive shaft to achieve 40-knot top speed, USNI News reported today.