LCS replica undergoes fire

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program completed tests to assess the ship’s ability to withstand blasts and fire caused by would-be weapons, the Navy said Aug. 11. Those tests, which occurred at the Army’s Aberdeen (Md.) Test Center ended June 30, and involved placing charges in several compartments of the Multi-Compartment Surrogate (MCS) module, an Independence-class replica built by Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. Testers also set controlled fires in the module to see how flames would affect the aluminum structure. The announcement came less than a month after the USS Jackson (LCS-6), also an Independence-class ship built by Austal, underwent its final underwater blast tests in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida’s coast. The analysis, along with the successful completion of the underwater trials with LCS-6, “will serve to support future survivability assessments of the Independence variant," said LCS program manager Tom Anderson. (Source: Defense Daily 08/11/16)