Warship Freedom again breaks down at sea

For at least the fourth time in its young history, the San Diego-based littoral combat ship Freedom has developed a serious mechanical or structural problem, the latest which caused the vessel to experience minor flooding while it was operating off Southern California.

The 378-foot monohull Freedom "suffered a failure of the port shaft mechanical seal" on Wednesday night, said Lt. Jan Shultis, a spokeswoman for the Navy in San Diego. "Some water went into the ship's bilge. Freedom returned to port unassisted."

Shultis said engineers are evaluating what happened to Freedom's propulsion system, which is composed of engines and water jets. The high-speed vessel was undergoing sea trials offshore when the incident occurred.

Freedom is the first vessel in a new class of warship that was developed by an industry group led by Lockheed Martin. The LCS was designed to rapidly perform a wide variety of missions in shallow waters throughout the world. The ship was commissioned in November 2008 and has suffered a string of problems that have raised questions in Congress about the vessel's design, construction and cost.

In May 2010, Freedom developed problems with a water jet that had to be repaired at General Dynamics-NASSCO in San Diego. In September 2010, one of Freedom's gas turbines broke down, requiring the ship to cut short offshore operations. The engine had to be replaced. Then in February 2011 Freedom developed a 6.5-inch crack in its hull during sea trials. The vessel took on some water, but returned to port safely. The severity of Wednesday's propulsion has yet to be made clear.

Lt. Shultis said that Freedom -- which cost at least $537 million -- is the lead vessel in a newly-designed fleet of ships, so early problems are not unusual.

The Navy also is building a second type of LCS, known as the Independence class. The lead ship -- the largely aluminum trimaran Independence -- has suffered "aggressive corrosion" in its propulsion system. news of the problem, and those suffered by Freedom, led Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to write to the Navy last summer and say, "I strongly urge the Navy to immediately conduct a formal review of the entire LCS program, provide an assessment of the technical design flaws of the current fleet and determine the best way forward to include the possibility of rebidding this contract so that the program can be put back on a fiscally responsible path to procurement."

Navy officials said it had the problems under control, and that the vessels would enter service in a timely manner. The first 16 LCS vessels will be stationed in San Diego.

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Warship Freedom again breaks down at sea