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First Littoral Combat Ship gets underway

The Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship, the Freedom (LCS 1), left its pier for the first time Monday and moved into Lake Michigan to begin a series of underway builder’s trials.

“Freedom is now under way,” Joe North, director of Lockheed Martin’s LCS program, said in a statement.

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The 378-foot long ship will spend the next two weeks conducting the trials, said Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder. During that time, engineers from Lockheed Martin, its shipbuilder, Marinette Marine, and other subcontractors will check out the ship’s propulsion, communications, navigation and mission systems, as well as other ship systems, Eschenfelder said. The ship will not remain underway for the entire period, but will return to harbor or anchor for most nights.

If the builder’s trials are successful, the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey will then conduct acceptance trials to determine if the ship’s systems meet standards. If all goes well, the ship should leave the Great Lakes later this year to head for its homeport in San Diego.

Marinette Marine and Lockheed have been working hard to prepare for the trials, which the shipbuilders had hoped to carry out last spring.

The LCS program, which originally envisioned a two-year construction period for the ships, has experienced multiple design and production difficulties, and Freedom is more than a year behind schedule. The ship’s keel-laying was held in June 2005, and it was launched in September 2006.

Costs for the first-of-its-kind ship have risen dramatically. Projected in 2004 at $220 million, the price tag has more than doubled. Navy and Lockheed officials won’t reveal current numbers, but sources have said the price for the first ship is at least $500 million.

Delays and cost growth have also affected Lockheed’s competitor in the LCS program, the General Dynamics Independence (LCS 2), which is under construction at Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.

Cost growth and a desire to renegotiate the construction contracts caused the Navy last year to cancel construction of each company’s second ship, and for now, the Freedom and Independence are the only LCS ships under construction. Three more have been approved or requested, but contracts have yet to be awarded.

Navy officials have been loathe to show off the new ships publicly, and shipyard visits by the media and independent analysts have been severely limited or not allowed at all.

At 2,862 tons full load, the Freedom represents the first of what the Navy hopes will become a total of 55 ships. The LCS is intended to fight in waters near shore and carry out a variety of missions, including fighting off surface ships, hunting submarines and clearing out mines.

Once the ships are completed, the Navy will carry out competitive trials of the Freedom and Independence and decide whether to build more of each design or concentrate on just one.