September 18, 200817 yr From Navy Times Navy accepts first LCS, anti-sub module Staff report Posted : Thursday Sep 18, 2008 16:06:57 EDT The Navy took delivery Thursday of its first littoral combat ship, the Freedom, one of two late-week milestones in the Littoral Combat Ship program, along with the scheduled rollout Friday of the anti-submarine mission module in San Diego. “This is a truly exciting day for the Navy. Today marks a critical milestone in fulfilling the need and realizing the vision we began just a few years ago,” said LCS program manager Capt. James Murdoch in an announcement Thursday. “Despite our challenges, the Navy and industry have continued to press on to build and deliver the first ship of a unique class, a ship class that will give our nation our own asymmetric advantages against future maritime threats.” The 3,000-ton, 378-foot Freedom is the first of the Navy’s warships that accept interchangeable equipment to handle three different missions: anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures and surface combat. Friday’s arrival of the ASW package — which includes new sensors; Mk 54 torpedoes for the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter; and a robot submarine — was expected to signal that the Navy had finished development work on each mission module. The steel, monohull Freedom, built by Lockheed Martin, is one of two competing designs for LCS, along with the aluminum trimaran Independence, built in Mobile, Ala., by General Dynamics. Both ships are behind schedule and more than 60 percent over budget. They represent a drastic break with the way the Navy has traditionally operated. Each LCS will have two core crews of 40 sailors apiece, which will alternate tours aboard the ship. Each mission module will have its own crew that will go aboard an LCS to operate the specialized equipment. The ships also will take aboard an aviation detachment, as do today’s surface warships. All together, this will make for a comparatively small ship’s company of about 75 sailors, the Navy hopes, possible because each LCS is so highly automated that many spaces will be unmanned. The first members of the Freedom’s Blue Crew were expected to begin moving aboard Thursday from its shipyard in Marinette, Wis. After more shakedown testing in Lake Michigan, the Freedom will sail to Milwaukee for its commissioning Nov. 8, and then out into the Atlantic, for stops at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., and Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, Fla., to test mission modules.
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