The Navy defended a controversial new warship on Monday amid reports of leaks and equipment failures, saying the problems had been corrected and did not represent long-term issues. A government watchdog group, however, warned that the ship could be unsafe.
The Project On Government Oversight said in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees that it had obtained internal Navy reports documenting problems aboard the littoral combat ship USS Freedom. The San Diego-based Freedom is the first in a new class of small, fast, modular warships that carry the hopes of a Navy brass eager to grow a shrinking, aging fleet.
Despite Navy leaders' enthusiasm about the Freedom specifically and LCS generally, POGO's letter said the Navy's own reports show the ship has endured almost nonstop problems since it entered service. It had equipment failures two of every three days over three years until it entered dry dock; it lost power for a time in a "darken ship event" that left it adrift; and it may have design problems that could plague the subsequent ships of its type, POGO said.
All these issues meant Navy commanders had to restrict the ship's speed and the sea conditions in which the Freedom could operate, POGO said, raising questions about its utility as a warship.
"These problems merit explanation from the Navy," wrote POGO's executive director, Danielle Brian. "We hope questions related to the issues we raise in this letter are incorporated into your annual oversight of the Navy's budget request and programs."
Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command, said the Freedom's leaks had been "well reported" when they happened and had since been repaired during its prolonged visits to dry dock. The limitations on speed and sea state were in effect only until the ship entered the yard, he said, and today the Freedom "is approved to operate within the full scope of its designed operating envelope."
As for subsequent ships in the class, Johnson said the Navy making sure the Freedom's problems do not reoccur aboard the USS Fort Worth or the USS Milwaukee.
Service leaders reaffirmed their support of LCS last week at the Navy League's annual trade show outside Washington. Undersecretary of the Navy Robert Work told attendees that LCS remained the ship the Navy needs for its future -- it would make the crews aboard potential small enemy vessels fear coming out to sea, he said, "because it will kick their ass -- and you can quote me on that."
But POGO's letter argued that the Freedom's leaks and equipment failures suggest there are bigger problems with the class, and that the ships could even pose a risk to their crews on missions down the road.
"These cracking issues and the limitations [of speed and sea conditions] are indicative of a larger problem with the ship," Brian's letter said.
"A darken ship event during counter-drug trafficking operations is a dangerous failure, but had this occurred while the LCS was pursuing any of its other missions, such as anti-submarine warfare or surface warfare, this failure could have been fatal. The cracking, and many of the equipment failures on the ship, endanger the lives of all personnel who board it."
At very least, Brian said, POGO's documents show the Freedom is not ready to take its next "trial deployment" to Singapore, now scheduled for next year. The Obama administration plans to forward-deploy LCS ships there to save the need for a long transit across the Pacific from Hawaii or the west coast.
LCS has been controversial since it was first proposed -- the 3,000-ton ships are favorite targets of acquisition reformers who object to their delays and cost overruns. And they have been the subject of intense debate inside the naval world, where skeptics worry about the complexity of their interchangeable mission gear; the heavy workload for their small crews; and the Navy's conscious decision to field a relatively thin-skinned warship that cannot trade punches like a heavier destroyer or cruiser.
Navy leaders -- including Work, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert and others -- insist the Navy of tomorrow needs a new kind of warship that LCS represents. Decoupling the vessels from their mission equipment opens up more possibilities for what they can carry, officials say, and using unmanned aircraft, boats and submarines lets sailors stand safely away from danger.
The Navy's planned fleet of 55 LCS ships forms a major chunk of its planned surface fleet, which has shrunk and aged despite the era of record defense spending since 2001. Despite the appearance of problems with both types of LCS, the Navy has decided to stick with its program and adapt to the ships, rather than the other way around. For example, Work said last week LCS crews would be sent on four-month deployments, rather than the six-month cruises assigned to legacy ships, to accommodate the smaller LCS crews.
No comments:
Post a Comment