US Navy's new warship unreliable: arms tester

[WASHINGTON] The reliability of the US Navy's first three Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) "has been degraded by frequent critical system failures" in early operations, the Pentagon's chief weapons tester said.

Testing in fiscal 2013 and analysis of data from fiscal 2012 "continued to identify deficiencies in the LCS" and "essential mission systems" such as mine-hunting equipment, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's director of operational testing, said in a section of his annual report obtained by Bloomberg News.

The report documents challenges that the Navy is facing in producing the vessels, des…