The Freedom is provided weapons to match her multi-mission role capabilities. She has 1 x BAE Systems Mk 110 series 57mm deck gun mounted forward, this having a range of 57,000 feet (17,000 meters). The 57mm gun is auto-fed with 400 rounds in the turret and two additional magazines having 240 rounds each. The sights are Gyro-stabilized. On the port and starboard sides of the craft are 4 x Browning .50-cal heavy machine guns and 2 x Mk 44 Bushmaster II 30mm guns to be used for surface threats. The Mk 44 is a 30mm chain gun firing 200 rounds-per-minute with a range out to 16,700 feet (5,100 meters). To counter air-to-surface missile threats, the weapon of choice is the 21 x RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile cells. The missile launcher is mounted aft, above the hangar deck, for short-range defense against incoming aircraft and wave-top cruise missiles threats. As designed the ship was equipped with internal batteries for 45 x NLOS missiles to counter the anti-surface ship warfare (ASW) threat. However these have since been removed.
The aircraft carried are 2 x Sikorsky MH-60R/S "Seahawk" medium-lift helicopters and 1 x Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV helicopter. The 2 x Seahawks have a reduced footprint with their hinged/folding tail sections within the available hangers. The MH-60R can handle anti-submarine warfare missions, ASW and medical evacuations of naval ship crew members and others in distress (MEDEVAC). Naval Special Warfare (NSW) insertion missions, vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of men and material and search and rescue (SAR) are all part of the Seahawk forte. All Navy H-60 series helicopters carry a rescue hoist for SAR/CSAR missions.
The 1 x MQ-8 unmanned Fire Scout is designed to provide over-the-horizon reconnaissance of fast-boat drug runners and targeting for support of air, ground and sea elements. The MQ-8B is fitted with stub wings which are for aerodynamic stability as well as hardpoints for armament. Available weapons include "Viper" laser-guided glide weapons, "Hellfire" missiles and pods for the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS). Laser-guided 70mm (2.75-inch) folding-fin podded rockets can take out light armored vehicles. Another use of the Fire Scout is in carrying emergency supplies to troops in-the-field (up to 200 pounds/90 kilograms).
On February 16th, 2010 - as America's first Littoral Combat Ship - USS Freedom (LCS-1) sailed from Naval Station Mayport, Florida per the Navy Department on a trial deployment. During this time on station, Freedom was available for missions in the Caribbean for a number of weeks before arriving at her homeport at San Diego. While on deployment observers spotted a "go-fast boat" outside Colombian territorial waters. Freedom launched its MH-60S Seahawk helicopter with its surface radar which monitored the drug runner vessel. The crew further observed the boat's occupants dumping their drug load overboard. The boat then crossed into Colombian waters, requiring the Colombian Navy to continue pursuit.
The Seahawk helicopter stayed on station while the littoral combat ship USS Freedom arrived and launched a boat into the water. The crew seized a quarter-ton of cocaine that had been dumped overboard by the panicked drug smugglers. The first "trial deployment" with the 4th Fleet proved a success. The US Navy indicated that the dumped bales of cocaine retrieved from the water were to be kept onboard the Freedom as evidence for when/if prosecutors try to bring the smugglers to trial.
A six inch horizontal hull crack below the waterline was discovered during a heavy weather ocean trial on the USS Freedom in February of 2011. It originated at a weld seam between two steel plates. The Freedom returned to port in San Diego, avoiding rough seas in the process. The Navy is reviewing the stress fracture on the mono-hull.
To date, USS Freedom (LCS-1) has sailed more than 10,000 nautical miles and successfully completed sea trials of her combat, communications and sensors and processing systems. Only USS Freedom (LCS-1) of the Freedom-class of ships has been commissioned as of this writing (2011). Other intended sister ships are the USS Forth Worth, the USS Milwaukee, the USS Detroit, the USS Little Rock and the USS Sioux City.
In February of 2015 it was announced that the "Littoral Combat Ship" designation for future vessels of the class will be reclassified to "frigate".
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