Littoral Combat Ship propulsion failures are causing low levels of reliability and availability for the vessel, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Nickolas Guertin wrote in his fiscal year 2021 annual report. The report, released today, states both LCS variants -- the Independence class and Freedom class -- “remain operationally unsuitable” due to the propulsion failures. “The Navy will continue to measure platform reliability and availability during all remaining test events to determine if the most significant reliability concerns have...