USS Milwaukee on 8 June 2016
History
United States
NameMilwaukee
NamesakeMilwaukee
Awarded29 December 2010[1]
BuilderMarinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin[1]
Laid down27 October 2011[2]
Launched18 December 2013[3]
Sponsored bySylvia M. Panetta
Christened18 December 2013
Acquired16 October 2015[4]
Commissioned21 November 2015
Decommissioned8 September 2023[5]
HomeportMayport
Identification
MottoStrength - Freedom[6]
StatusStricken, Final Disposition Pending
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeFreedom-class littoral combat ship
Displacement3,500 metric tons (3,900 short tons) full load[7]
Length378.3 ft (115.3 m)[1]
Beam
  • 43 ft (13 m) wl
  • 57.4 ft (17.5 m) (extreme)[1]
Draft
  • 13 ft (4.0 m) (navigational)[1]
  • 14 ft (4.3 m) (draft limit)
Installed power
Propulsion4 × Rolls-Royce waterjets
Speed45 knots (52 mph; 83 km/h) (sea state 3)
Range3,500 nmi (6,500 km) at 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h)[8]
Endurance21 days (336 hours)
Boats & landing
craft carried		11 m RHIB, 40 ft (12 m) high-speed boats
Complement50 core crew, 75 with mission crew (Crews rotate through hulls)
Sensors and
processing systems
  • EADS TRS-3D C-band radar
  • X-Band Navigational Radar
  • S-Band Navigational Radar
Electronic warfare
& decoys
  • WBR 2000
  • Super RBOCs
  • Nulka decoy launchers
Armament
Aircraft carried
NotesElectrical power is provided by 4 Isotta Fraschini V1708 diesel engines with Hitzinger generator units rated at 800 kW each.

USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) was a Freedom-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy.[9] She was the fifth ship to be named for the city of Milwaukee,[10] the largest city in Wisconsin.

Design

In 2002, the U.S. Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships.[11] The Navy initially ordered two monohull ships from Lockheed Martin, which became known as the Freedom-class littoral combat ships after the first ship of the class, USS Freedom.[11][12] Odd-numbered U.S. Navy littoral combat ships are built using the Freedom-class monohull design, while even-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the trimaran hull littoral combat ships from General Dynamics.[11] The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the Freedom-class design.[11]  Milwaukee is the third Freedom-class littoral combat ship to be built.

Milwaukee includes additional stability improvements over the original Freedom design; the stern transom was lengthened and buoyancy tanks were added to the stern to increase weight service and enhance stability.[13] The ship will also feature automated sensors to allow "conditions-based maintenance" and reduce crew overwork and fatigue issues that Freedom had on her first deployment.[14]

Construction

Launching of Milwaukee on 18 December 2013

She was laid down on 27 October 2011 at Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin; launched on 18 December 2013; sponsored by Mrs. Sylvia M. Panetta, wife of Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta;[15] and commissioned on 21 November 2015.

Over the 2015 Labor Day weekend holiday, it was reported that Milwaukee generated waves greater than five feet tall during test runs near Door County's Chambers Island which damaged more than 40 boats.[16] Milwaukee was still in the custody of Marinette Marine at the time of the incident and was conducting pre-commissioning acceptance trials. In June 2016, the Coast Guard announced that their investigation was complete and that no enforcement action would be taken against any of the parties involved.[17]

Milwaukee completed her acceptance trials prior to 1 November 2015[18] and was commissioned in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 21 November 2015.[19] She had improved systems as well as mission modules compared to USS Freedom and USS Independence, the first two Littoral Combat Ships. Her keel was laid down on 27 October 2011. Lockheed VP Joe North has said that starting with Milwaukee, the Lockheed LCS design is "done, locked and stable".[20] This was after thirty or so changes from USS Fort Worth on top of hundreds of changes from USS Freedom.[21] One of the improvements for Milwaukee was specially designed waterjets that replace the commercial versions used on previous Littoral Combat Ships.[22] Ultimately, this design plan failed and the ship was decommissioned after combing gear failures and less than 8 years of service. The mission modules never panned out.[23]

Career

On 11 December 2015, on its way to San Diego from Halifax, Nova Scotia, the vessel experienced a "complete loss of propulsion" and was towed to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia.[24]

On 23 February 2016, CNN reported an update on the status of Milwaukee. In that update Navy Lt. Rebecca Haggard stated that Milwaukee "is designed to operate with gas turbine and diesel engines, which can operate in tandem or independently, In the case of Milwaukee when switching from one system to the other, a clutch failed to disengage as designed. Instead, the clutch remained spinning and some of the clutch gears were damaged." Lt. Haggard also stated that quick action by the crew prevented more serious problems and the damaged clutch was repaired in Virginia.[25]

On 30 December 2016, Milwaukee participated in a homeport shift ceremony that took place at Naval Station Mayport. The ship never made it to her previously planned homeport of San Diego.[26] She was assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron Two.

On May 16, 2018, Milwaukee fired four "Longbow" Hellfire missiles at Fast Inshore Attack Craft (FIAC) targets, as part of an experimental platform development programme.[27][28]

In 2021, the navy decided against decommissioning Milwaukee alongside several other older Freedom-class ships due to Milwaukee's active testing of a new anti-submarine mission package.[29]

On 2 April 2022, Milwaukee returned to Mayport following a 15 week deployment to the 4th Fleet.[30]

On 29 July 2022, a major electrical fire damaged the ship while she was docked in Jacksonville.[31]

On 19 October 2022, Milwaukee left Mayport for her second deployment in 2022 to the 4th Fleet.[32] The ship returned to Mayport in June 2023 after a 243 day deployment to Central and South America.[33]

Milwaukee was decommissioned 8 September 2023 at a ceremony in Mayport.[5][23]

  • USS Milwaukee is featured in the book Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Into the Fire.[34]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "USS Milwaukee (LCS-5)". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Lockheed Martin Team Lays Keel on Nation's Fifth Littoral Combat Ship, the Future USS Milwaukee" (Press release). Lockheed Martin. 27 October 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
  3. ↑ "Lockheed Martin-Led Team Launches Future USS Milwaukee" (Press release). Lockheed Martin. 28 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  4. ↑ "Navy Accepts Delivery of Future USS Milwaukee (LCS 5)" (Press release). United States Navy. 16 October 2015. NNS151016-18. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 "USS Milwaukee decommissioned; combat ship active since Nov. 2015". FOX6 News Milwaukee. 8 September 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Littoral Warfare Ship Photo Index". www.navsource.org. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  7. ↑ "Littoral Combat Ship Class – LCS". America's Navy. US Navy. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "LCS Littoral Combat Ship". Archived from the original on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  9. ↑ "Marinette Marine receives $376M Navy contract". The Business Journal. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Mabus, Ray (18 March 2011). "Announcement of LCS 5 and LCS 7 Names" (PDF). Marinette, Wisconsin: United States Navy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "US Navy Fact File: Littoral Combat Ship Class – LCS". US Navy. Archived from the original on 2 March 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  12. ↑ O'Rourke, Ronald (4 May 2010). "Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  13. ↑ Osborn, Kris (27 June 2014). "Navy Engineers LCS Changes". www.dodbuzz.com. Monster. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  14. ↑ Freedberg Jr., Sydney J. (4 April 2014). "Sleepless In Singapore: LCS Is Undermanned & Overworked, Says GAO". breakingdefense.com. Breaking Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  15. ↑ Evans, Mark L. (10 August 2015). "Milwaukee V (LCS-5)". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  16. ↑ Hay, Andrea (8 September 2015). "Naval ship damages more than 40 boats over Labor Day weekend". wbay.com. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015.
  17. ↑ "Coast Guard completes USS Milwaukee commercial vessel investigation". uscgnews.com. 3 June 2016. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  18. ↑ "The Future USS MILWAUKEE". Facebook. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "USS Milwaukee (LC5) Commissioning". Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  20. ↑ Ewing, Philip (10 January 2012). "SNA: LM's LCS enters its 'cookie cutter' phase". DoD Buzz. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  21. ↑ Fabey, Michael (30 November 2012). "Redeeming Freedom: U.S. Navy Seeks to Renew Faith in LCS Fleet". Aviation Week. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "New Waterjets Could Propel Littoral Combat Ship to Greater Speeds". Science Daily. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  23. 1 2 Barrett, Rick (8 September 2023). "USS Milwaukee decommissioned as the Navy scuttles its littoral fleet". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  24. ↑ Larter, David (12 December 2015). "The Navy's newest ship breaks down, limps into port". Navy Times. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  25. ↑ Lendon, Brad (23 February 2016). "Damaged clutch shut down new Navy warship". CNN. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  26. ↑ Daraskevich J (30 December 2016). "Mayport Officials Welcome 2 New Littoral Combat Ships". Florida Times Union. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  27. ↑ USS Milwaukee Fires Longbow Hellfire Missiles in Live-Fire Test Event
  28. ↑ video
  29. ↑ Eckstein, Megan (3 August 2021). "Navy will incur some cost in replacing Freedom-variant LCS combining gears". Defense News. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  30. ↑ "USS Milwaukee Returns Home After 4th Fleet Deployment".
  31. ↑ Toropin, Konstantin (29 July 2022). "Fire Aboard USS Milwaukee at Florida Naval Base". Military.com. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  32. ↑ Junco, Anthony (19 October 2022). "USS Milwaukee Deploys to Support Regional Cooperation and Security". navy.mil. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  33. ↑ Cleavenger, Alexus (19 June 2023). "The USS Milwaukee returns to Naval Station Mayport". Action News Jax. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  34. ↑ "Book Review – Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Into the Fire".
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