Navy testing again rocks the waters off Florida's coast

For the second time in less than two months, a Navy test at sea has triggered earthquake-like effects off the coast of Florida.

We first told you in July about a shock trial for the USS Jackson off the coast of Jacksonville, which involved detonating a 10,000 pound bomb in order to test the survivability of the new class of ships, the Littoral Combat Ships. The detonation registered a 3.7 on the Richter scale.

Our partner Action News Jax has confirmed a similar test was done on the USS Milwaukee off the coast of Flagler Beach this weekend. The Navy tells them the explosion registered a 3.8 magnitude. More tests are expected for the ship in the coming weeks.

These trials address longstanding concerns from the Government Accountability Office and other investigators about whether the LCS is durable and resilient enough to do the mission it was designed for. WOKV has continued to investigate these complaints, which also include that the designs weren't fully tested while ship production was still ongoing.

There have been four engineering casualties on these ships in roughly the past year, and the Navy has since ordered an engineering stand down and is retraining all engineering staff while reviewing their policies and procedures.

Naval Station Mayport will serve as the East Coast homeport for the LCS, with the first ship expected before the end of the year, and eight by 2020.