Next-gen ship: spacious feel, little steel - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Next-gen ship: spacious feel, little steel

ABOARD THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP INDEPENDENCE — For the uninitiated, being aboard Independence, the Navy’s second littoral combat ship, may feel like being inside a burrito wrapped to go.

A very large burrito.

Its aluminum bulkheads and overheads are sheathed in flame-retardant foil, protection in the event of a shipboard fire.

In addition to the unique coverings, there are signs throughout banning smoking or any tobacco use anywhere aboard, a rule that could well remain once the ship, built with very little steel, joins the fleet.

“We haven’t found a smoking area yet,” said Cmdr. Curt Renshaw, commander of the ship’s Blue Crew.

But past the melt-proof wrapping, the stunning thing about LCS 2 is its size. For a ship that’s meant to be nimble and fast — hitting 45 knots — it has volume to spare.

Its 99-foot beam rates against a big deck amphib, which has the collateral consequence of a bridge that’s wide enough to play bocce behind the helm; the game could be played quietly because the deck will be carpeted.

At 11,000 square feet, the flight deck could accommodate a rock concert — or a CH-53 heavy-lift helicopter.

“That flight deck is just a beast,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said after spending the morning of March 31 touring the ship, now moored at the Austal shipyard in Mobile, Ala.

Roughead went to the Gulf Coast to get a deck-plate view of Independence and several other ships under construction, as well as the Navy’s drone helicopter program, Fire Scout.

LCS 2 is the General Dynamics design of the Navy’s new concept surface combatant. Like Lockheed Martin’s Freedom, the first LCS, Independence has a shallow draft, very minimal manning and vast payload space intended for interchangeable combat mission modules. You also can park 34 Humvees inside or, for mercifully short hops, a battalion of Marines.

“I was really pleased with the open architecture approach that’s being taken on LCS 2,” Roughead said. “That ship continues to amaze me, with regard to the amount of space.”

As could be expected with any shipbuilding program, LCS has its delays and cost growth. On July 30, The Press-Register newspaper in Mobile reported that an internal Navy audit found a “significant breakdown” in oversight and cost controls for Independence, which is about $300 million over budget and a year behind schedule.

Former Navy Secretary Donald Winter laid down the law for to the LCS program in April 2007, canceling Lockheed Martin’s and General Dynamics’ second LCS hulls because of cost overruns. The decision came after Winter announced that two previously authorized LCS hulls would not be contracted so the Navy could free up funds to cover cost overruns.

Since then, the Navy has announced the names of the third and fourth ships, Fort Worth and Coronado.

Independence is on schedule for sea trials in June and commissioning before the end of the year, according to sources familiar with the program.

More work to come

Independence is not complete, and it looks that way on the inside. When Roughead was aboard March 31, shipyard workers had to pause whatever noisy tasks they were engaged in so Navy officers and shipyard managers could explain whatever generator or engine was on display.

Roughead helped steer two destroyers through commissioning earlier in his career, so he wanted to see the guts of the ship. What he called “cosmetic” issues, such as stateroom fixtures and passageway tiling, are rightly the last to be resolved and are usually done with haste and ease, he said.

“The reports I was getting in Washington [were] that they started lighting off systems, lighting off the diesel generators, that a control system is coming on line, and I just wanted to see it for myself how that was,” he said. “There are certain things I like to look for. As they press toward main engine light off — which I don’t care whether it’s an LCS, a DDG, an LHD — that’s a huge milestone. So I was very interested in the machinery spaces.”

He also was interested in how a crew of 40 will maintain and operate such a large ship. An oxidized exterior finish means it does need paint, but it’s still a 2,790-ton warship with lots of moving parts.

“I don’t like anything that creates work,” he said. “We need to think of the best way to operate the ship and maintain the ship with 40 people.

“Cosmetics are man hours. We’ve got to work on that.”

That said, LCS crews will live unlike other sailors. Ship’s company numbers 40, and a mission crew and air detachment bump the complement to 76. Officers and chiefs will live two per stateroom, each with its own head. Enlisted sailors will bunk four per stateroom, also each with its own head, bringing the shipwide head total to 32.

Enlisted racks are built with ample headroom, providing space to add a third bunk to each stack of two if it’s determined later that more crew members are needed. That would scale rack space up to 99.

Observers are anxious to see the LCS program mature. Roughead said if the ships were in the fleet today, they’d be part of the counterpiracy task force off Somalia and zipping around the Persian Gulf.

“If you want to have a presence up in the northern gulf, the LCS is perfect because it can stick its nose in places others can’t because it draws so little water,” he said. “If you told me we have a high-value unit coming in or out of the straits, I’d slam an LCS or two with that guy going in or out. So our challenge is going to be, ‘Where do you put the ships?’ They are going to be pulled in a lot of directions.”

And while he is anxious for LCS to join the fleet, Roughead’s assessment remains measured.

“We’re beginning to see the type progress we need to get that ship delivered,” he said.