The troubling revelations about the Independence-class littoral combat ships come as the Navy continues to grapple with a class-wide transmission issue in the Freedom-class variants.
The Navy is satisfied that land-based and at-sea testing of the new combining gear system — and its bearings, specifically — sufficiently wrung out the new design, and now the service can move forward with installing the fix in new-construction and in-service ships.
House appropriators ripped a proposal to decommission four littoral combat ships contained in President Joe Biden’s Pentagon budget request for next year as “a misuse of taxpayer funds.”
The U.S. Navy has asked for a budget that would boost near-term readiness by investing in ship and aircraft maintenance but shrinks procurement and force structure, again pausing plans to grow the fleet.
Top Pentagon officials are asking Congress to let them use the upcoming budget to shed unneeded weapons in order to invest in forward-looking technologies now. It wasn't an easy conversation.
The CNO insists the Navy is now on a “positive trajectory,” but it will have to rebuild confidence under congressional scrutiny as it prepares a new strategic plan.