U.S. Navy Commissions First Littoral Combat Ship to Receive Design Flaw Fix

The U.S. Navy commissioned the eleventh Freedom-variant LCS - Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 21, USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul - in Port of Duluth, Minnesota.

USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul was launched and christened on June 15, 2019. The ship completed acceptance trials on Aug. 21, 2020.

In early 2021, the Navy refused to accept new Freedom-class LCS vessels until manufacturer Lockheed Martin fixed a flaw the service found in its combining gear. An engineering defect was found in the bearings system in USS Detroit (LCS-7) and USS Little Rock (LCS-9) ships. The system links the ship’s Rolls Royce MT30 gas turbines and Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, which power the main drive shaft to achieve 40-knot top speed.

The bearings would wear faster than anticipated over a period of time and result in a failure of the combining gear. A probable fix would be replacing the two high-speed clutch bearings with a different bearing version that would not fail as easily.

The Navy would have to operate at or under 35 knots until the problem is solved.

The service had notified Lockheed Martin it would not accept delivery of additional Freedom-class hulls until the design flaw is fixed.

The service accepted delivery of the ship in Nov. 2021 after rigorous testing of a combining gear modification that allowed for unrestricted operations. LCS 21 is the first Freedom-variant ship to receive the fix.