LCS sailing early? What do you think?
June 11th, 2009 | Blogs Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
The littoral combat ship Freedom underway at speed in Lake Michigan during builder's trials in August, 2008 // Navy via Lockheed Martin
This notion about the littoral combat ship Freedom potentially sailing much earlier than 2012 has gotten people talking.
Springboard likes the idea:
Best idea I’ve heard in a long time!! Sure, our ships and tactics are complicated, but… our two (to two and a half) year workups seem just a tad excessive. We have, in times past, sent green crews on green ships to sea, and they’ve — by and large — worked out (though I’m sure more than a few skippers came back with a lot more grey hairs after the initial deployments).
And it just so happens Mike Burleson toured Freedom recently and he broached the subject of a deployment with sailors from the ship’s Gold Crew:
So I was speaking with a sailor on the LCS Freedom on Tuesday about when would the USN’s premier “pirate buster” actually be sent to fight the new insurgents at sea. The crewman was very noncommittal with information and didn’t seem to want to talk to me. Would the Freedom’s crew know something they didn’t wish to share with the public? Certainly understandable until they get the nod from higher up.
We have been in many trade-show audiences in Washington and seen people stand up to ask Navy officials why Freedom can’t sail sooner. Then again, the ship has a lot of work left before it can operate as initially planned. So what do you think?
Comments
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Chuck Hill Says:
June 12th, 2009 at 3:43 pmNothing like being at sea for a couple of months to get everyone concentrating on the task at hand. This is what the Soviets never seemed to understand, a unit’s performance doesn’t go down the longer its away from port, it goes up.