USS Freedom LCS-1 soon and very soon
 

If the US Navy can't figure out how to build diesel boats anymore ... the least we can do is find them and sink them. This is going to be one fine ship when she's finished this fall.

http://www.ussfreedom.org/

http://www.ussfreedom.org/assets/pho...istening-7.jpg

The Freedom is being built in Marinette, Wis., and will arrive in the Milwaukee harbor one week before her commissioning.


About the LCS and USS Freedom

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a new class of surface combatants. A fast, agile and networked warship, LCS will execute focused missions to defeat shallow-water threats such as mines, diesel-electric submarines and fast surface craft.

The Freedom (LCS-1) was designed by Lockheed Martin and will be homeported in San Diego, Calif., following its commissioning.

General Characteristics:

Displacement:
3,089 tons, full load

Dimensions, feet
(metres):
379.0 × 43.0 × 12.8
(115.5 × 13.1 × 3.9)

Main machinery:
CODAG: 2 Rolls Royce MT-30 gas turbines; 96,550 hp (72 MW); 2 Fairbanks Morse Colt-Pielstick 16PA6B diesels; 17,160 hp (12.8 MW); 4 Rolls Royce Kamewa 153SII waterjets

Speed, knots:
45

Range, n miles:
3,500 at 18 kt

Complement: :
50

Missiles:
Raytheon RAM

Guns:
1 United Defence 57 mm/70 Mk 2; 220 rds/min to 17 km (9 n miles); weight of shell 2.4 kg. 4-12.7 mm MGs

Countermeasures:
2 SKWS/SRBOC decoy launching systems. WBR 2000 ESM

Combat data systems:
COMBATSS-21

Weapons control:
To be announced

Radars: Air/surface search:
EADS TRS-3D; C-band

Navigation:
NAVSSI/GPS/WSN7V

Fire control:
DORNA EOD EO/IR System

Sonars:
None

Helicopters:
2 MH-60 R/S helicopters or 1 MH-60 R/S and 3 Firescout VTUAVs

Wow, only 50 crew - that's amazing to my mind.

Not only does she have a small crew of fifty ... the USS Freedom will have two captains with two crews.

Gold and Blue crews like on the boomers and ssgn's.

Why the two captains geetrue?

Shes a cool looking warship. Very sleek.

They should do that on the newer Virginia's and 688I's too, IMO. Would really get the most out of the boats that way. And wouldn't have to strain the crews so much constantly.

PD

One captain for each crew ... keeps them sharper and fresher.

They aren't both on the boat at the same time - which is what you're thinking. It's so when returning to port, you switch crews to a fresh crew while the other rests. Allows you to do more with less hardware - seems to be a common form of thinking these days in the military and in business.

-S

Ah thanks. I didn't know that.

Mmmh strange ship - it is completely underarmed for its size!

I don't understand why the Navy just built some more of Israel's Saar5 class corvettes for themselves.
Those ships have a lot more firepower are are considerably smaller => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27ar_5-class_corvette

I've actually seen a Sa'ar 5 up close, but armament isn't everything, the LCS's are considerably faster, also they have more range (Don't forget that while the purpose is relatively similar, the Sa'ar 5 Corvettes are really made for protecting the Israeli coast in the Med while the LCS's are made for the much larger US coasts)

Oh, BTW, USS Independence (LCS-2) isn't so far from completion either

I did not realize either that LCS-2 (USS Independence) will be very different! So will the final LCS fleet be a mix of the two designs, or will they choose the rest based on some evaluation of these two ships?

It's up in the air, IIRC. They have canceled all LCS's post LCS-2 pending rebidding. The cost overruns got out of hand and they pulled the plug.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/us...n/&oref=slogin

PD

I like the ships, but who would want to serve on something called "Freedom"?

Captain Bligh to CIC...

nevermind the wonderful headlines if she sinks..

I think you are thinking that what is listed above is everything. If I am not mistaken, the LCS's were designed to be modular and could accomidate what was needed for the mission. No other ship can do this.

Some additional details here - http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...p/lcs-mods.htm

So you are seeing the base platform - weapons and sensors can be added as needed.

-S

This reminds me of the WWII Deutschland which was renamed because if a ship called Deutschland would sink, it wouldn't be too good for morale...