Cost, quality problems dog Navy's LCS warship The littoral combat ship Freedom (LCS-1) has been undergoing maintenance and upgrades at BAE Ship Repair San Diego. — Earnie Grafton A decade-old, multibillion-dollar attempt by the Navy to develop a radically different family of warships is reeling from cost overruns, structural problems and doubts about the design, staffing, role and survivability of the speedy new vessels. This month, a bipartisan group of seven U.S. senators demanded that the Pentagon explain why Freedom, the first of the new littoral combat ships, suffered a small but worrisome crack in its hull and had to...