Tuần Duyên Hạm USS Freedom Trực Chỉ Singapore

USS Freedom trực chỉ Singapore

FILE - This July 28, 2008 file photo provided by Lockheed-Martin via the U.S. Navy shows USS Freedom, the first ship in the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class, from Marietta, Wis. Production costs for the latest class of warships have come down so much that the Navy wants to double its planned orders from shipbuilders in Wisconsin and Alabama, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl said Thursday Nov. 4, 2010. The very first littoral combat ship was the USS Freedom, which was built in 2008 by Marinette Marine and produced by its partner, Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md. The Freedom was expected to cost $220 million but the final price tag was closer to $550 million. (AP Photo/Lockheed-Martin via U.S. Navy, File) — AP

Written by Jeanette Steele

The Navy littoral combat ship Freedom will head to Singapore for a 10-month deployment in the spring of 2013.

The warship will be forward stationed in the Asian city-state under a program to place a vessel there for a lengthy stretch but rotate crews in and out.

The Navy mentioned the timing at a media telephone conference Wednesday, during which it also defended the ship in the face of a leaked internal report that showed the Freedom performing poorly in a pre-inspection.

This will be the second deployment for the San Diego-based Freedom, the first ship in a new vessel class that is supposed to be fast, light and versatile for coastal patroling, but that also has been dogged by criticism about early performance and questions about whether it can survive a battle.

The Freedom arrived in San Diego in April 2010 after a maiden deployment from the Florida to San Diego.

The vessel has spent time in the shipyard since then, in part to repair cracks found in her hull. The Freedom is now preparing for its “final exam,” the congressionally mandated Board of Inspection and Survey test. Failing an “INSURV” is an enormous black eye in the Navy.

An early May pre-INSURV inspection report – something that isn't usually released but leaked out in a Navy-related blog – shows that half of the inspected areas were rated “red,” or no-go, according to a Navy Times story Wednesday night. Eight categories received yellow marks, while six were rated green, or go.

A spokesman at Naval Surface Forces in San Diego said the Freedom isn't the only ship to not fare well in a pre-INSURV review, called a Type Commander Material Inspection Team evaluation. The Navy started performing these pre-inspections last summer as a way to tell if a ship was in danger of failing the final exam.

Since mid-2011, the San Diego-based ship command has conducted eleven of these pre-inspections. Of these, six ships – including the Freedom – were characterized as "high risk/no go" for INSURV, three as "medium risk" and two as "Ready to Proceed," said spokesman Cmdr. Jason Salata in a written statement.

The Freedom gets two more rehearsals before it will face the big INSURV test.

Also in the conference call, the admiral in charge of the littoral program addressed complaints that the ships can't take a fight. A 2011 report by the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation said that the littorals are "not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment."

Rear Adm. James Murdoch said that given the choice of a littoral ship or an antiquated mine sweeper vessel, he'd rather see his children serving on a littoral.

"Would I rather have them on a 228-foot, wooden-hulled minesweeper with 50 caliber guns, or would I rather have them on LCS, which has speed, maneuverability, air search radars, a self-defense missile, and the capability to remotely operate vehicles to hunt and neutralize mines," Murdoch said.

"That’s a pretty simple answer, in my mind. I don’t have a lot of concern about the adequacy of the design."

 http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/10/navy-ship-freedom-singapore-bound-despite-inspecti/