USS Billings will be decommissioned in 2023

Well, Billings, it was fun while it lasted.

When it was planned and commissioned, it was hoped that at least the name, Billings, would be spread around the world as the USS Billings, a littoral-combat ship, patrolled the seas for the next four decades.

But it appears that the $500 million ship, along with 14 others like it, will be decommissioned by the end of 2023, pending approval from Congress. The LCS program was estimated to be a $3.6 billion project.

The USS Billings was commissioned in August 2019 and is slated for decommissioning sometime in 2023, meaning it will have lasted just one-tenth the time U.S. Navy leaders had anticipated.

USS Billings was likely doomed before the champagne had dried from its bow as naval engineers and leaders scrambled to fix two serious design flaws with the ships, which were produced in Wisconsin. The defense contractor on the project, Lockheed-Martin, was beset with engineering problems, including the ships’ aluminum hull and its complex drive system which had failed on several vessels, in several cases so badly that the ships were immobilized and had to be towed back to port.

The USS Billings had its own stumbling blocks when its inaugural leader was quickly replaced. Before the ship was even commissioned — during a phase called “precommissioning” the ship’s commander, Michael Johnson was relieved of duty when the Billings struck a Canadian cargo ship.

The Navy and the Pentagon had looked into ways to re-engineer or fix the flaws, ultimately deciding after one last attempt in 2021 to decommission the vessels, saying that the cost of repairing the issues made it unfeasible. A General Accounting Office report on the LCS program noted substantial problems with the fleet, cost overruns, and that it was unable to prove its military capabilities, including its weapons systems during combat.

“But the Navy hasn’t demonstrated that this type of ship can perform its intended missions. For example, operational testing found challenges in the ship’s defenses. Also, some key equipment has failed, and the Navy is behind schedule in developing capabilities such as mine countermeasures,” the report said. “Operational testing has found several significant challenges, including the ship’s ability to defend itself if attacked and failure rates of mission-essential equipment … Until the Navy makes future operational deployments contingent on progress in addressing gaps between desired and demonstrated capabilities, the LCS will continue to be dependent in combat and require protection by multi-mission combatants.”

A source from the Senate’s Armed Services Committee told the Daily Montanan that the fate of the ships is unknown until after Congress gives its approval to decommission them. However, they could be used for other purposes, for example given to a NATO program.

The Navy Times first reported the issues in 2016 and has continued coverage of the problems.

One of the most vexing and nearly-impossible problem was with the “combining gear,” which is “a complex transmission that connects power from two large gas turbine engines and two main propulsion diesel engines to the ship’s propulsion shafts which propel the ship through water with water jets.”

Because of the problem, the Navy had ordered the ships not use the gear, which was prone to early failure, but that kept the ships to speeds of 10 knots, when ships like the USS Billings were designed to achieve 40 knots for combat.

Another area of concern for the U.S. Navy was aluminum hulls of ship. The hulls reduced the weight and likely contributed to what was supposed to be a speedy vessel. However, experts now believe that the ships “lack combat power and are not built to withstand battle damage.”