The U.S. Navy has confirmed that the newest littoral combat ship USS Montgomery which the Navy received in June this year, experienced two unrelated casualties within a 24-hour period while transiting from Mobile, Alabama, to her homeport of San Diego on September 13.
USS Montgomery is the fifth littoral combat ship to experience some sort of break down within a year. USS Freedom, USS Coronado, USS Fort Worth and USS Milwaukee are the littoral combat ships that broke down earlier.
LCS 8 is now set to conduct a brief stop for fuel at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will then sail to Naval Station Mayport, Florida, under its own power to conduct warranty repairs.
According to the U.S. Navy, the first casualty happened when the crew detected a seawater leak in the hydraulic cooling system. Later that day, Montgomery experienced a casualty to one of its gas turbine engines.
The U.S. Navy explained that the built-in redundancy of the ship’s propulsion plant allows these ships to operate with multiple engine configurations. However, with the two casualties resulting in the loss of both port shafts, it was determined the best course of action would be to send the ship to Mayport to conduct both repairs.
Montgomery will conduct repairs in Mayport and continue her transit to San Diego.