USS Fort Worth completes maintenance, repair availability in Singapore

CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Singapore, May 4 (UPI) -- The Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth is underway in the Asia-Pacific region following its first extended maintenance availability on a 16 month deployment.

During the two-week and five-day period in Singapore more than 580 checks and 100 tag outs of engineering, deck and combat systems were conducted, the Navy said.

Tag out refers to disconnecting a system from its power source for maintenance checks and/or repair.

The USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) is operating on the deployment on a 3-2-1 concept: three ships crews support two LCS vessels, swapping out at four-month intervals. The rotation will allow the Fort Worth to deploy six months longer than the 2013 USS Freedom (LCS 1) deployment and twice as long as typical U.S. Navy ship deployments.

The USS Fort Worth is performing routine patrols in the Asia-Pacific region as part of the U.S. 7th Fleet.

Fort Worth will employ the surface warfare (SUW) mission package for her entire deployment, augmenting her 57mm gun and rolling airframe missile launcher with two 30mm guns, two 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boats, and two six-member maritime security boarding teams.

The vessel is outfitted for its current deployment with a surface warfare package, which includes an aviation detachment of one helicopter and one MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aircraft system.

The ship also carries a 57mm gun and rolling airframe missile launcher with two 30mm guns, two rigid-hull inflatable boats, and two six-member maritime security boarding teams.