USS Independence LCS-2

**dmwnc1959** · 15 Apr 12,, 18:34

By chance caught her passing through the Panama Canal this afternoon heading westbound. Here are some web cam grabs of her at the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks:

Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS 2)

Will post more in a few minutes....

**dmwnc1959** · 15 Apr 12,, 19:29

**dmwnc1959** · 15 Apr 12,, 19:42

**surfgun** · 15 Apr 12,, 19:46

That bare aluminum sure does collect rubber smears on her hull.
http://www.navy.mil/management/photo...-ZS026-225.jpg

**tbm3fan** · 15 Apr 12,, 21:29

Makes Pinocchio look tame by comparison...

**RustyBattleship** · 15 Apr 12,, 23:14

surfgun said: That bare aluminum sure does collects rubber smears on her hull.

What makes you think that is BARE Aluminium?

**surfgun** · 16 Apr 12,, 01:14

Because, the Navy indicated that they have no intention of painting any of the aluminum on the Independence Class ships other than their bottoms. It has been explained, as the aluminum ages it takes on the darker gray, typical of a naval vessel.
Here is a PDF from the builder, AUSTAL.
http://www.austal.com/Libraries/News...plications.pdf

**dmwnc1959** · 16 Apr 12,, 04:20

One thing I didn't know until doing some quick research on this class of ships was that there are 10 of these built or planned and LCS-10 is to be named the USS Gabriel Giffords. How many US Navy warships have been named after living people?

**RustyBattleship** · 16 Apr 12,, 04:38

Surfgun said: Because, the Navy indicated that they have no intention of painting any of the aluminum on the Independence Class ships other than their bottoms. It has been explained, as the aluminum ages it takes on the darker gray, typical of a naval vessel.
Here is a PDF from the builder, AUSTAL.
http://www.austal.com/Libraries/News...plications.pdf

Thanks for the link. That is very informative and educational. I recall the days of our mistakes of what kind of Aluminum to use for ship structures. 6061 is a TEMPERED aluminum and welding it without annealing the weld area turned out to be a no-no. Most aluminum superstructures in Navy ships was 5086 that is already annealed. Other special aluminum alloys have also been used and I find it very interesting that a ship as large as the LCS is completely built of aluminum.

But I would bet it's not a standard alloy because even 5086 starts getting white speckels on it (aluminum oxide) if not primed and painted.

As a side note, it is true that aluminum does not "burn". But it does have a very low melting point and we found that out the hard way with the thin aluminum bands holding up the electrical cableways in the Belknap. The thin bands melted and the cableways dropped into the passageways making it impossible for escape or rescue teams. So on the Spruance class Destroyers we added in steel "H" frames every 8 feet to hold the cableways up in place.