Another black eye for the LCS

The USS Milwaukee, the newest Freedom Class LCS had to be towed 40 miles to port, less than a month after commissioning, and before even reaching her home port. She was sailing from Halifax, to Mayport, Florida, where she was scheduled to port before continuing on to San Diego. The ship was commissioned November 21st, in Milwaukee, Wisconson and was on her way to station.

Almost as soon as she left Halifax, the computer sounded an alarm for an engineering problem. Engineers found metal filings in the lube oil filter, on the port prop shaft. They cleaned the filter out and locked the shaft. On Friday, while performing steering tests, the starboard shaft lost oil pressure as a result of the same shavings. The ship dropped anchor and started working the problem, until the USNS Grapple arrived on scene and took her under tow. She was towed to Little Creek, Virginia where she's undergoing repairs. The cause of the shavings is currently not known.

ABOARD THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP MILWAUKEE, VIRGINIA CAPES – The littoral combat ship Milwaukee, the Navy’s newest ship, broke down Dec. 11 and had to be towed more than 40 nautical miles to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia.

The ship suffered an engineering casualty while transiting from Halifax, Canada, to Mayport, Florida, and ultimately its home port of San Diego. The cause is being evaluated by ship’s crew and technical consultants.

Initial indications are that fine metal debris collected in the lube oil filter caused the system to shut down, according to a Navy statement provided to Navy Times. The cause of the metal debris in the lube oil system is not known and assessments are ongoing.

The ship was commissioned Nov. 21 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has been making the long trek to San Diego through the Great Lakes since.

scoopdeck.navytimes.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58
I read this earlier today on facebook. I was actually thinking about sending you the link to the story since you cover stuff like this but forgot. Anywho, from what the RT news story said, it had metal filings in the lube oil system. Could this occur naturally or do you think it was sabotage?

a reply to: Skid Mark

It's a not uncommon problem. We used to have to run oil samples on jet engines after so many hours to check for metal shavings. It is extremely uncommon to see it this fast.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I guess they didn't run oil samples then. Hmmm do you think since it occurred so soon it was a design flaw?

a reply to: Skid Mark

I'm betting it was a manufacturing issue. Samples are generally run in port, using an on shore lab. We used to send our samples to the Navy to run. They probably have a mean time between samples for these engines, and being brand new, they hadn't reached that time yet.

She was on sea trials. This is what they are for.

a reply to: 123143

Her acceptance trials were completed, and she was on her way home. Regardless, even if she was on sea trials, with all the other problems the LCS has had, it's just more bad news for the class. USS Freedom has been on patrol, and broke down several times. The Independence has had massive problems since hitting the water. Navy ships should have redundancy preventing complete systems failures like this.

This program has been jinxed from day one. Man I imagine the sailors get the heebee geebees when they find out their assignments being such a superstitious lot.

The bottle of champagne didn't break. You know how seamen view that.

Birthing pains. Let's just hope the baby ends up fully developed.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I wonder how fast the prop shafts spin on that ship?

The prop shaft bearings on the L-S-D that I was on (out of Little Creek) did not have filters on the lube oil. Equipment that turned at high rpms like pumps and the sstgs had lube oil pumped to them and it was filtered.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

If it doesn't get killed at a young age. Many of the problems are being overcome, but there is a lot of pushback against it. None of the mission pods are near complete yet, so it's modular combat system is useless, it lacks heavy armament, etc.

The Milwaukee already has a bad history. She suffered some kind of damage during builders trials that required repairs. Then over Labor Day Weekend, while doing a sustained high speed run, she caused such a large wake that 40 small boats in the area suffered damage, and a number of mayday calls were sent to the Coast Guard.

The trouble is, the real problem...
she is one butt ugly boat.

a reply to: butcherguy

Fast. It uses the Rolls Royce MT30 gas turbine engine. It's actually based on the Rolls Royce Trent 800 aircraft engine, and it's extremely efficient. The output shaft on the engine spins at 3600 rpm with an alternator drive, and 3300 rpm with a mechanical drive. It's the same engine used in the Zumwalt, and the Queen Elizabeth.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

If it doesn't get killed at a young age. Many of the problems are being overcome, but there is a lot of pushback against it. None of the mission pods are near complete yet, so it's modular combat system is useless, it lacks heavy armament, etc.

The Milwaukee already has a bad history. She suffered some kind of damage during builders trials that required repairs. Then over Labor Day Weekend, while doing a sustained high speed run, she caused such a large wake that 40 small boats in the area suffered damage, and a number of mayday calls were sent to the Coast Guard.

You would think they would have planned that a bit better.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

You would think they would have planned that a bit better.

You mean like taking a glance aft?

Seems Navy does not necessarily equate with seamanship.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: OccamsRazor04

You would think they would have planned that a bit better.

You mean like taking a glance aft?

Seems Navy does not necessarily equate with seamanship.

Looking around? That's crazy talk.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

Looking around? That's crazy talk.

Yup. Cuz everything we need to know is right there in the glass cockpit.
Brings to mind a dependents cruise I got to be on once...a story for another time.

a reply to: Phage

Next you'll be expecting them to look up.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I don't expect much.
Leaves room for pleasant surprise.