Less than a month after a brand new Navy ship was commissioned into service, it had to be towed more than 40 miles to port after it broke down on Friday.
The USS Milwaukee, which costs $360 million, broke down on Thursday evening, a few days after the ship’s crew discovered “fine metallic debris in the port combining gear filtered system,” said the Navy in a news release, which the crew discovered later in the ship’s oil filter. The Navy described the breakdown as a “loss of propulsion.”
The breakdown happened while the ship was on its way to its home port in San Diego and commissioned in Milwaukee. The trip was scheduled to go through the Great Lakes and Halifax, Canada and then Florida.
According to CNN, “a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Surface Force, Pacific Fleet, told CNN she is working to obtain an update on the Milwaukee’s status.”
“‘U.S. Navy ships are built with redundant systems to enable continued operation in the event of an engineering casualty, which makes this incident very concerning” Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in a statement. He expected the Navy to “conduct a thorough investigation into the root causes of this failure, hold individuals accountable as appropriate, and keep the Senate Armed Services Committee informed.’”
