MARINETTE, Wis., March 25 (UPI) -- The first U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship has tested its diesel generators and electric power plant.
The LCS 1, Freedom, has finished checking out its electric plant, Lockheed Martin, the company that led the industry team that constructed the 377-foot Freedom, said in a statement earlier this month. LCS vessels are named after their planned function, which is to operate close to shore, or in littoral waters.
The Freedom carried out "light off," or initial operation tests on its four 750-kilowatt Fincantieri Isotta Fraschini diesel generators and also checked out its three-megawatt electrical power plant. Every generator was successfully checked out to its full-power capacity, Lockheed Martin said.
The generators were also put through synchronizing, or "paralleling, tests to confirm that they could reach the power levels they would need to provide full capability required to enable the ship to carry out all its functions at sea."
The tests were also employed to monitor the ship's power quality to confirm that all ship systems and sensors would be able work operationally. The Freedom is therefore now "completely functional and able to support all tests, evaluations and operations at sea," Lockheed Martin said.
The company said the LCS would undergo further equipping and checks at Marinette Marine. The vessel is scheduled to be handed over to the U.S. Navy later this year and to be based in San Diego.
The Freedom was built with a survivable, semi-planing steel monohull. The design gives the ship greater maneuverability while retaining more traditional sea-keeping capabilities in order to allow it be involved in launch and recovery operations as well as carrying out its designated close-to-shore missions.
Other team industry companies working with Lockheed Martin on the ship were naval architect Gibbs & Cox, ship builders Marinette Marine, a subsidiary of The Manitowoc Co. Inc., and Bollinger Shipyards, among others.
