Navy’s ‘Klingon Bird Of Prey’ Passes Key Tests: LCS Trimaran

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Displacement: 2,307 metric tons light, 3,104 metric tons full

 

Length: 127.4 m (418 ft)

 

Beam: 31.6 m (104 ft)

 

Draft: 14 ft (4.27 m)

 

Speed:    44 knots (51 mph; 81 km/h)

 

Range:  4,300 nm at 18 knots

 

Propulsion: 2× MTU Friedrichshafen 20V 8000 Series diesel engines, 2× General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2× American VULKAN light weight multiple-section carbon fiber propulsion shaftlines, 4× Wärtsilä waterjets, retractable bow-mounted azimuth thruster, 4× diesel generators.

 

http://breakingdefense.com/2016/06/navys-klingon-bird-of-prey-passes-key-test-lcs-trimaran/

 

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Navy’s ‘Klingon Bird Of Prey’ Passes Key Tests: LCS Trimaran

 

[UPDATED with shock trials] The strangest-looking ship in the Navy is conducting two crucial tests. A broad, triple-hulled “trimaran” design likened to a villain’s vessel from Star Trek, the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship completed its Initial Operational Test & Evaluation on June 3rd. What’s more, the Navy Sea Systems Command announced yesterday, the USS Coronado (LCS 4) wrapped up IOT&E with its second successful test-firing of SeaRAM, a self-defense system designed to shoot down enemy drones and cruise missiles.

Just days later, sister ship USS Jackson (LCS 6) completed the first of three “full ship shock trials” June 10th, with live explosives going off underwater near the ship. Both shooting down incoming missiles and riding out explosions are critical capabilities for relatively small and inexpensive ships often derided as too fragile to take a hit.

So completing these tests is a significant step for the more obscure of the two LCS variants. The Independence ships have been overshadowed by the better-known Freedom class. (The Freedom-class ship Fort Worth, LCS-3, completed IOT&E back in 2014). While Freedom-class LCS have conducted deployments to Singapore — and suffered high-profile problems like hull cracks and breakdowns at sea — the Independence ships have largely stuck to home waters, serving as test platforms for the minesweeping equipment and other “mission modules” that will go on both types.

Indeed, it’s easy to forget that the Littoral Combat Ship is really two distinct designs, each making half of the production run. Odd-numbered ships, starting with LCS-1 Freedom, are built by Lockheed Martin and Wisconsin’s Marinette Marine. Their steel hull and aluminum superstructure that look like a conventional warship’s, albeit with touches inspired by an Italian racing yacht to help it reach high speeds. Even-numbered ships, starting with LCS-2 Independence, are built at Austal’s Gulf Coast shipyard. Evolved from Australian high-speed ferries, they’re all-aluminum and they look weird.

“When that thing comes in port, everyone says, ‘What the hell is that?'” Work once said. “It looks like the Klingon Bird of Prey.”
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