“Ongoing challenges” with the Navy’s new ships has led to an engineering stand down and widespread retraining.
The Naval Surface Forces Commander, Vice Admiral Tom Rowden has ordered an engineering stand down for every Littoral Combat Ship crew “to review procedures and standards for their engineering departments,” according to a release from the Navy. The stand downs have all been completed as of the end of August.
A Public Affairs Officer with US Pacific Fleet Naval Surface Force tells WOKV the stand down deals with crewing, training, and procedures, not the mechanics or design of the ships themselves. A statement from Rowden says the stand down will be used for retraining every Sailor involved in the engineering of the ships, as well as a review of the training program itself to see if there need to be any changes.
“These stands down allowed for time to review, evaluate, and renew our commitment to ensuring our crews are fully prepared to operate these ships safely,” says the statement from Rowden.
This announcement comes after an engineering casualty on the USS Freedom and flexible coupling assembly casualty on the USS Coronado, which are the most recent of four engineering casualties that have happened with LCS in the last year.
Naval Station Mayport is set to be the East Coast homeport for this class of ship, with the first coming by the end of this year, eight by 2020, and potentially more beyond that. The base has already seen new buildings pop up and hundreds of jobs created to provide support and staffing for the ships, and has hosted some of the ships which already rolled out.
US Pacific Fleet Naval Surface Force tells WOKV the impact of the stand down should not influence the anticipated ship delivery timeline.
The boost in the local forces comes at a critical time, with the base at a low level of ships in the aftermath of the Navy decommissioning frigates. While the pending arrival of the LCS has been looked at to reverse that, the base has seen other ships shift to Jacksonville in the meantime, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group.
The Government Accountability Office has been at the forefront of criticizing the way the LCS has been bid and constructed, including concern over the changes that are being made in ship design in order to maximize budget, and the testing that the ships have endured. The Secretary of the Navy is looking at scaling back the number of LCS that will be built as well, down to 40 from the original 52 ship plan.
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