The embarked crew of the forward-deployed littoral combat ship Coronado deployed in June, headed toward Singapore and was supposed to be back around Thanksgiving. Now, one week into spring, Crew 204 is finally getting some relief.
Crew 203 is en route to Singapore to relieve 204, which will be thrilled to leave the Coronado in their rear view and get back to their families.
Over the past months, Crew 203 has been working up in an LCS simulator, but the underway portion of their pre-deployment training was delayed because all the available trimaran LCS hulls were in maintenance. But as delays mounted, family members of the crew who spoke to Navy Times said the crew became increasingly demoralized.
That seems to be coming to a much-needed end, according to a release from Naval Surface Force Pacific. Crew 203 departed Naval Air Station North Island Tuesday morning, which should allow 204 to head back by mid-April.
"Crew 203 is ready to assume our duties in the Pacific, continuing to develop partnerships and maintain presence in some of the world's most significant sea lanes," said 203's commanding officer, Cmdr. Douglas Meagher, in the release.
Navy Times first reported that Crew 204 was stuck in December, and then again in February. Part of the delay in getting 203 out to Singapore was reorganizing the program and shifting training standards after a string of mechanical failures on LCS ships, some of which were caused by crew error.
A program review carried out after recommendation by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson uncovered the need to increase on-hull training that was previously done in the simulator, SURFPAC officials said.
"The recent LCS study prompted several changes to the LCS training and certification process to make sure deploying crew are provided both off-hull simulator and on-hull underway opportunities to fully certify prior to deployment," said Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Haggard in a February email.
Officials who spoke to Navy Times on background have said Crew 204's extended stay in Singapore is not going to be the new normal for sailors, and reorganization of the program, which moves a blue-gold crewing system, will smooth out some of the manning issues.
Under the original crewing plan for the LCS fleet, three crews of about 50 sailors each rotated between two ships, which meant sailors would spend four-to-six months deployed on the ship, about six in pre-deployment workups and six months off hull for training and leave.
Much of the training and certification was supposed to be done in a simulator to free up ships for tasking. All this was meant to keep the LCS forward-deployed and underway for as much time as possible.
But the high-profile crew failures on Freedom and Fort Worth, in which crew members caused breakdowns, prompted senior Navy leaders, including top surface warfare officer Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, to change how the LCS conducts business.
From now on, the ships are going to be manned by two crews of roughly 70 sailors that trade on-hull and off-hull time. The reboot also scrapped the mission-module concept, where each ship was manned by a core crew and could rapidly switch out mission packages from, for example, an anti-surface warfare module to an anti-submarine warfare package with a permanently assigned crew of specialists.
The new concept assigns roles to each ship, while entire crews will train for that specific type of warfare.
“When I send out USS Gabrielle Giffords to do anti-submarine warfare, I want 70 sailors doing anti-submarine warfare, 93 with the air detachment,” said Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden in a September interview. “There’s none of this, ‘Hey we are a jack of all trades business.' No, we are signed up on this mission and this is the mission we are going to go execute. Simplify the mission in the minds of the individuals and make them experts in the execution of it.”
In the SURFPAC release, Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One head Capt. Jordy Harrison congratulated Crew 203 on meeting the new training standards put on deploying LCS crews.
"The training and certification process is extensive and necessary to ensure our crews are fully prepared for the demands of deployment," Harrison said.
"I am proud of Crew 203 and our entire LCS team for their dedication and hard work to implement recent changes to LCS on-hull training opportunities following last September's LCS review. These changes in the LCS program will ensure we provide the Fleet with crews trained and prepared to execute the mission sets," he said.
