The USS Milwaukee(LSC-5) caught on fire yesterday at approximately 13:47 EST. The fire has been classified as a class charlie fire. Class charlie or class C fires are fires caused by energized electrical elements in the fire type naming system. The ship was pier side at Naval Air station Mayport Florida when the fire occurred and the local fire department from Jacksonville Florida responded as back up and as a precautionary measure. The fire has been extinguished with all souls involved being treated for smoke inhalation.

The USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) had recently returned in April 2022 from a four month deployment in the Caribbean sea. However, As reported in December 2021 the USS Milwaukee [1] was restricted to pier side in Guantanamo bay, Cuba for several weeks while under quarantine from a COVID 19 outbreak. During the recent drug deployment with special US Coast Guard drug interdiction personnel onboard the USS Milwaukee seized 64 million in illegal drugs. In addition, the ship and crew crossed the equator and traversed the Panama canal twice, which is a feather in Commander Foster's cap, who is the commanding officer.

USS Milwaukee is a member of the Freedom class of small frigates known as Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). The freedom class of ships displaces 3500 tons and uses 4 Royles Royce (Axial MK-1) jet propulsion systems. Two jets for steering and reverse and two jets for boost. She is crafted with a semi planing steel monohull allowing her to reach a speed of 50 mph in sea state 3. The Littoral water vessel has a maximum draft of 4 meters (13 feet). She contains 2 H-60 Seahawk helicopters as well as deployable armed watercraft. A vessel fully equipped for the task at hand.

The USS Milwaukee is a member of the freedom class of naval vessels proposed by Lockheed Martin (prime contractor) and an Italian firm Fincantieri to be fast, multipurpose ships operating in shallow waters. The ships were built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette Wisconsin. They were made to be plug and play capable. By extracting and inserting various components the ship can be configured to meet one of three design missions. Those design missions are anti-mine, anti-submarine, fast attack boat interdiction. The freedom class is an expansion of the StreetFighter concept promoted by Naval Warfare Futurist Admiral Art Cebrowski. Admiral Cebroski proposed that in the information age Naval vessels no longer need to be impenetrable because the Naval battle space is networked. In Adm Cebroski's philosophy each ship acts as a node in a network similar to a swarm. If one ship becomes incapaitated the network redistributes, firepower is moved to another deck plate, and the battle continues. However, all the Brass in the US Navy walk in lock step over the issue of electrical power or lack thereof for powering running radars, jammers, rail guns, laser weapons and ship propulsion. A ship such as the USS Milwaukee could have up to 7 million feet of electrical cables and wire. In an electrical boat such as the freedom class frigates, it is possible that faulty electrical engineering has overloaded circuits thus resulting in a multitude of issues from lack of electrical power to solenoids that drive clutches resulting in material fatigue to the current ship board electrical fire. These are proto type ships made for a new battle space, thus, they are bound to have growing pains. With time the littoral concept will be main stream Naval warfare.