encyclopedia titanica

Posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - 4:51 am:

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ABOARD THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP INDEPENDENCE — For the uninitiated, being aboard Independence, the Navy’s second littoral combat ship, may feel like being inside a burrito wrapped to go.

A very large burrito.

Its aluminum bulkheads and overheads are sheathed in flame-retardant foil, protection in the event of a shipboard fire.

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Posted on Sunday, May 3, 2009 - 5:59 am:

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(MOBILE, Ala.) May 1 - Austal USA in Mobile has been awarded a contract to build a littoral combat ship for the U.S. Navy. General Dynamics is teaming up with Austal to build the ship.

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Posted on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - 4:23 am:

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (NNS) -- USS Freedom (LCS 1), the first of two LCS sea frames being produced, made a port visit May 4 to Alexandria, Va.

According to Gold Crew Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Michael P. Doran, Freedom and its crew are proud to show off the various mission module systems, including the 30 millimeter gun module, non-line-of-sight launch system, anti-submarine warfare unmanned surface vehicle and remote multi-mission vehicle to visitors in the National Capital Region.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 - 7:04 am:

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ABOARD THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP FREEDOM — The Navy’s first littoral combat ship, Freedom, is so different from other surface ships that even mundane tasks require a whole new way of thinking.

Take, for example, refueling at sea. A regular warship matches speed with an oiler by syncing up the revolutions per minute of the ships’ propellers. The problem? Freedom doesn’t have propellers.

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Posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - 3:53 am:

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The estimated cost of the first of the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) rose a modest $6 million over the past year, but the price tag to complete the second LCS jumped $68 million, putting the ship over the $700 million mark, Pentagon budget documents show.

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Posted on Friday, June 5, 2009 - 6:05 am:

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The question asked of the U.S. Navy’s top leadership sounded as if the needs of the war in Afghanistan were reaching deep into the management of the Littoral Combat Ship program.

“I hear that the SUPSHIP [supervisor of shipbuilding] that was monitoring the LCS program was pulled off to be an individual augmentee,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Thursday during a Navy budget hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he chairs. “Is that true?”

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Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - 7:46 am:

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Shipyard technicians in Mobile, Ala., have started up the main propulsion plant aboard the littoral combat ship Independence, a milestone toward the ship getting underway this summer for sea trials, shipbuilder General Dynamics announced Monday.

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Posted on Saturday, June 13, 2009 - 4:09 am:

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Navy officials in the Pentagon and Fleet Forces Command are studying the possibility that the Navy’s first littoral combat ship, Freedom, could make a short deployment earlier than planned, on the orders of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, the Navy confirmed Friday.

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Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 5:29 am:

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The US Navy's first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), USS Freedom (LCS 1), successfully conducted its second and final round of acceptance trials last month.

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Posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 5:27 am:

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The littoral combat ship Independence postponed starting its builder’s trials by 24 hours Monday after engineers noticed “an anomaly” with the ship’s propulsion plant, and decided to tie back up out of “an abundance of caution,” a spokesman said.

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Posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 7:58 am:

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The littoral combat ship Independence didn’t get underway Tuesday from its shipyard dock in Mobile, Ala., a day after an engineering problem delayed the start of its builder’s trials. Officials would not give an explanation why.

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Posted on Friday, July 3, 2009 - 7:24 am:

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The Navy’s second littoral combat ship, Independence, put to sea for the first time Thursday for builder’s trials, three days later than scheduled after its shipyard crew dealt with early engineering problems.

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Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2009 - 3:37 am:

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The keel for the future littoral combat ship, USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), will be laid July 11 during a ceremony at Marinette Marine Shipyard in Marinette, Wisc.

Keel-laying has traditionally been the first step in ship construction, when shipbuilders laid down the lengthwise timber that would become the ship's backbone.

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Posted on Sunday, July 19, 2009 - 1:02 am:

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- USS Freedom (LCS 1) successfully completed structural test firing (STF) exercises off the coast of Virginia June 25; the STF exercise was held to test the ship's weapon systems to ensure they operate as installed and integrated with the hull structure.

During the week of tests, Freedom fired two Rolling Airframe Missile test rounds, 70 MK 110 57mm gun rounds, 24 chaff rounds and more than 1,000 50-calibre and smaller rounds.

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Posted on Saturday, July 25, 2009 - 6:39 am:

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MOBILE, Ala.—The president of Maine's Bath Iron Works says the newest littoral combat ship built for the Navy has achieved nearly 50 mph, and it wasn't even at full power.

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Posted on Saturday, July 25, 2009 - 7:53 am:

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The littoral combat ship Independence hit a speed of 43 knots on its builder’s trials while running at less than full power, but problems with its propulsion plant mean it has to sail again for at least a second set of tests, its shipbuilder announced Friday.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - 4:10 am:

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)-led industry team submitted its proposal for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fiscal year 2010 contract to the U.S. Navy on July 31.
The Program Executive Office, Ships, is expected to award a contract this coming fiscal year for additional Littoral Combat Ships. The U.S. Navy is proceeding with a limited competition with winners of the Flight 0 phase of the program, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.

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Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - 5:01 am:

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The littoral combat ship Independence hit a speed of 43 knots on its builder’s trials in late July while running at less than full power, but problems with its propulsion plant will necessitate at least a second set of tests.

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Posted on Thursday, September 17, 2009 - 4:14 am:

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The Navy said Wednesday it will select either Lockheed Martin Corp. or General Dynamics Corp., but not both, to build a fleet of small, speedy Littoral Combat Ships.

As part of its new strategy, Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley and Vice Admiral Barry McCullough said only one defense contractor will be picked in fiscal 2010, not two as initially planned, due to rising costs.

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Posted on Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 7:34 am:

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Sea trials of the first Littoral Combat Ship from General Dynamics could resume as early as next week, sources said, giving shipbuilders and their Navy customers a chance to see if numerous engineering fixes implemented since the summer have taken hold.

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Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 4:20 am:

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy announced Oct. 13 the decision to deploy the USS Freedom (LCS 1) in early 2010 to the Southern Command and Pacific Command areas ahead of her originally scheduled 2012 maiden deployment.

According to Navy leaders, littoral combat ships (LCS) are needed now to close urgent warfighting gaps.

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Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 - 5:20 am:

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DAHLGREN, Va. (NNS) -- The first Littoral Combat Ship Surface Warfare (SUW) Gun Mission Module structural test firing on USS Freedom (LCS 1) was successfully conducted Sept. 22-25.

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Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 8:09 am:

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The Navy’s second littoral combat ship, the Independence, finished its builder’s trials Wednesday, more than three months after first sailing from its Mobile, Ala., shipyard for its tests at sea.

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Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 6:57 am:

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The Navy’s first littoral combat ship, Freedom, will add 20 sailors to its crew when it makes its trial deployment next year, making for a total complement of about 95 people, as opposed to the crew of 75 the ship was originally designed to carry.

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Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 4:25 am:

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FALLS CHURCH, Va., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CSC (NYSE: CSC) announced today that the U.S. Navy has awarded the company a task order to support the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program Office, PMS 501. The task order, which has a one-year base period and four one-year options, has an estimated total five-year value of $169 million.

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Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 - 5:47 am:

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WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The future USS Independence (LCS 2) successfully completed acceptance trials this week, after completing a series of graded in-port and underway demonstrations for the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).

Acceptance Trials are the first opportunity for INSURV to test the ship and its systems.

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