Two More LCS Ships Break Down

Now this is just getting silly.  I didn’t report on the LCS program’s latest failure, the engineering breakdown of USS Freedom which will require a complete diesel engine rebuild or replacement due to salt water in the lube oil and engine.  This occurred in mid-July.  I didn’t report on it because another LCS failure isn’t even noteworthy anymore.

However, we now learn that USS Coronado has just suffered an engineering casualty while underway from Hawaii to the western Pacific for its first deployment to Singapore.  Coronado is now returning to Hawaii for damage assessment and repair.  Nice start to the deployment!

You’ll recall that Fort Worth suffered an engineering breakdown during her highly publicized attempt at deployment and sat in Singapore for months while the Navy tried to figure out what to do.  The Milwaukee also suffered an engineering plant failure and had to be towed back to Virginia.  Freedom has suffered multiple engineering casualties in its, so far, ill-fated career.  Coronado also suffered engine fires during builder’s trials in April of 2013.

These are no longer first of class issues.  These are systematic engineering failures across all the LCS vessels that have ventured out to sea.  I feel bad even talking about LCS problems because it’s like beating a dead horse – it’s just no fun anymore.

Typically, I offer analysis on whatever I post but there's no analysis needed for this.  What a waste of a program.  A lot of Navy leaders are losing a lot of credibility over this joke of a ship.

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