is the biggest waste of money the Navy has ever had. They continue to produce ships that cannot cross the ocean on their own, they need to be piggy-backed to their deployment in Singapore
Yes she used her own power to get out of port, then she was put on the back of a transport ship and hauled to just outside 1SD and dropped off to enter port under her own power. The fact is, and I know this because I know several of the planning yard people who work on LCS, LCS class ships are not allowed on the open ocean in sea states greater than 4. The Independence Class (mono-hull) has 3 distinct structural design flaws which cause mirrored cracks on their hull and superstructure. In sea states 5 or greater they have the real possibility of breaking apart and sinking. Ships are designed to stretch, flex and twist to disperse energy relatively evenly throughout the structure. In the LCS’s case this does not happen thus the sea state restriction. It is next to impossible to cross the pacific ocean and not encounter Sea State 5 or greater at some point thus the reason they are piggy-backed to and from Singapore. Also under normal circumstances these design flaws also cause extra wear on shaft bearings and they have to be changed out on a twice yearly schedule, if they were to cruise from SD to Singapore on their own power they would have to stop in Guam for several weeks to get their bearings replaced to finish the trip. That’s how bad they are. Don’t believe the propaganda you read in defense news magazines, they lie all the time to cover up embarrassing situations in the military. LCS’s are pieces of shit that will do nothing but get their crews killed rather quickly if they ever go into battle against a real warship. They will be known as widowmakers.