USS Fort Worth is one sleek warship
Editor’s Note: Paste BN correspondent Kirk Spitzer was invited to spend four days aboard the USS Fort Worth during a recent training exercise.
ABOARD THE USS FORT WORTH IN THE JAVA SEA —The first thing you notice when you step aboard this sleek new warship is that there aren’t many sailors — but almost all are doing double duty.
Take Boatswain’s Mate First Class Alicia Miller, who on a recent day took two five-hour watches on the ship’s bridge, piloted a speedboat during a ship-boarding exercise and performed weapons and boat maintenance.
“We have a small crew, so no matter what your job is, you learn to do everyone else’s job,” said Miller, 29, from Elk River, Minn.
A member of the new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) class, the USS Fort Worth is designed to hunt submarines, clear minefields, slug it out with small warships and chase down terrorists using small, fast boats.
Though longer than a football field and more than five stories high, the Fort Worth has a crew of just 104 men and women. That’s much smaller than a conventional warship of the same size. A vast network of computers, sensors and automated systems is designed to ease the workload.
Rather than conventional screws and rudders, the Fort Worth relies on a water-jet propulsion system — think of a jet ski on steroids — that allows the ship to hit speeds of more than 45 mph, operate in water as shallow as 20 feet and turn on a dime.
All of which means LCS’s are ideal for the Asia-Pacific region, said Cmdr. Chris Brown, 45, the Fort Worth’s commanding officer.
“Two of the largest archipelagoes (in the world) are located here in Southeast Asia, with thousands and thousands of miles of coastline. This ship was built to operate in the littorals (areas close to shore), so this is a perfect environment for us,” said Brown, who was born in Jamaica and raised in New York City.
Working with friendly countries has been a big part of the Fort Worth’s job since it arrived in the region in December. So far, it has trained with naval forces in Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Other joint exercises are scheduled later in the year.
“What it does is enable all of the navies in the Southeast Asia area to be able to work together. That’s what we’re here to do – build alliances and partnerships,” said Lt. (j.g.) Andrew Pena, 30, of Miami, who leads the ship’s surface warfare detachment.
The LCS ships are an important part of the U.S. military's new emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, but they're not without controversy. Critics say the ships are too lightly armed.
“The LCS have relatively limited survivability and firepower, and how effective they can be in the South China Sea will depend entirely on the level of tensions,” said Alessio Patalano, a specialist in East Asia maritime security issues at the Department of War Studies at King's College in London. “On the other hand, the presence of an agile, robust force of modern, stealth ships like the LCS might prevent the theatre from becoming ‘hotter.’ ”
The Fort Worth has already been at the center of escalating tensions in the region. In May, it was tailed by a Chinese Navy warship for nearly two days in the South China Sea.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, and is building at least seven artificial islands on shallow reefs and shoals there. At least one of those islands includes a 3,000-meter runway and a deepwater harbor that could accommodate military ships and planes.
Five other countries claim territory in the region, as well, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Indonesia also has islands in the South China Sea and has voiced concern that China may claim them, too.
U.S. officials worry China could use the new islands to assert control over air and sea navigation, and have called on China to halt construction. More than $5.3 trillion in trade moves through the South China Sea annually.
Whether the LCS ships, at $600 million each, are up to the job remains to be seen. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the Fort Worth’s predecessor, the USS Freedom, failed badly in its maiden deployment to the region last year, spending more time in port with staffing and maintenance problems than at sea.
The GAO found the ship’s core crew was too small and that mission specialists were forced to help with basic functions just to keep the ship operational. The Navy — which plans to buy 32 LCS ships — says it has fixed that problem by boosting the basic crew from 40 to 50 sailors and implementing a new rotation system.
“We learned lessons from Freedom and implemented them rapidly into Fort Worth,” Brown said. “There’s more space on Fort Worth. Equipment is located more ergonomically and more practical. There’s been improvement in software and hardware and reliability.”