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We had bad weather roll in this morning but when I got to the fire station we decided to take the fire boat to St Pete and try and get a good look at the USS Independence before she left today. The 25+ knot winds and heavy rain made for good inclement weather training as we made our way to St Petersburg. Fortunately the worst of the rain broke as we arrived at the USCG Station. The ship's security detail allowed us to get very close and it was exciting to be able to examine the odd vessel. Once underway in the Bay, it was interesting to note her radar signature was about the same as the two tugs that assisted her out of berth. And that was with the SH-60 on the deck and other radar reflecting bits that would normally be stowed. Though we were not there to officially escort the warship, we engaged the pumps and did a full parade and flowed all nozzles as she entered the main channel. Her Captain then hailed us on the VHF thanking us on behalf of the entire crew for the show of respect.

Thought I'd share this pic of her entire length...

http://www.unlimitedhardware.com/USS_...ndence.jpg

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Neat boat, and yes I know it's a ship. I'd rather see us buy a few more of these in and around our ports than send our hard earned tax dollar abroad to foreign nations.

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I'm curious as to how well she'll handle rough seas. This vessel kind of reminds me of the old Iron Clad warships of the Civil war era. The only real external design difference, aside from size and other features, where that the old Iron clads were built to deflect cannon balls whereas the Indy is built to deflect Radar waves.

Very cool.

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She'll supposedly handle rough seas very well including air operations in 15 foot seas. The spec I find really incredible is her advertised 50kt top speed.

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50kts is probably the unclassified speed for her. Our current fleet of Nimitz class aircraft carriers "unofficially" can go that fast.

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Yeah, I figure the published spec is modest thats why its so amazing to me.

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And trust me when I tell you that when a carrier is moving along at whatever speed, the whole ship is shaking and you can tell something "just ain't natural" for a ship that large to be going that fast.

I remember back in '97 we were flying about 50-70 miles away from the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) and we lost an EA-6B Prowler. The carrier headed toward the crash site while we flew a circleS over the wreckage (no survivors). When we looked off to the horizon, we could see the wake of the Hawk long before we actually saw the ship herself. It was amazing to watch that ship steam toward the aircraft wreckage site.......those things really move out.

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I'd rather send the money off to foreign nations- it is a cool ship but there are so many corrosion problems with this class that it's a bit like lighting our tax dollars on fire. They aren't going to last very long and the boatyard that builds them and our government are in a pretty heated legal battle right now. Google Navy LCS Corrosion (google will actually auto-fill that for you).

They certainly do look cool and the flight deck is huge. I haven't landed on one but I fly over one in Jacksonville often- it makes our CG flight decks look like postage stamps. Last thing- they aren't built for huge seas. LCS stands for Littoral Combat Ships. Littoral waters are close to shore.

Yiger

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Keep in mind that the LCS program consists of two classes, Independence and Freedom. The corrosion issues are realted to the Independence class constructed by Austal. Although Freedom did suffer from a cracked hull, that's another story. Supposedly Austal has got the corrosion issues figured out (install an ICCP system, more anodes, better coatings). Most of the news articles on the corrosion problem are from last June. We'll see if it's really solved.

There are always unforseen issues with the lead-ship of a new class, including huge cost overruns

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We always had galvanic corrosion issues with our 32 foot 1991 aluminum hull fire boat and we're having those issues with our new aluminum 70 footer. In less that a year, we've had stainless water pressure sensor fittings corrode and start popping right out of the cooling manifolds for the engines and that is with an ICCP system installed.