The U.S. Navy’s latest littoral fight ship needed to be towed into port final week after dropping propulsion off the coast of Virginia.  

A press release from the U.S. Navy mentioned the ship, USS Milwaukee (LCS 5), was en-route to a naval base in Little Creek when it misplaced propulsion Thursday night time whereas roughly 40 nautical miles off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia.

The USNS Grapple (T-ARS 53) was despatched to retrieve the vessel and tow it to the Joint Expeditionary Base (JEB) at Little Creek-Fort Story, the place they arrived at roughly 9 p.m. EST on Friday.

The USS Milwaukee will endure full diagnostics and restore whereas on the JEB Little Creek-Fort Story. 

The Navy says the delay was induced “by the discovery of metallic debris in the port and starboard combining gear filter systems”.

“The Milwaukee crew initially took action Monday when they discovered very fine metallic debris in the port combining gear filter system,” the Navy mentioned in a assertion. “The crew cleaned the combining gear filters following established procedures, but locked the port shaft as a precautionary measure to prevent possible shaft damage. Thursday evening, while conducting routine steering checks, the ship lost pressure in the starboard combining gear lube oil system. The casualty was due to similar metallic debris contamination of the filter.”

USS Milwaukee was en-route to Little Creek following the ship’s commissioning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 21.

Milwaukee is a Freedom-variant of the littoral fight ship and can be homported in San Diego.  The Freedom-variant LCSs are designed and constructed by a staff led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and constructed at Fincantieri’s Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin. 

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