U.S. Navy warship the USS Montgomery hit a cement structure as it passed through the Panama Canal on Oct. 29, resulting in an 18-inch crack to the ship’s hull above the waterline.
The ship was commissioned in September and has already suffered a series of mishaps.
When it tried to enter the Panama Canal for the first time Sept. 13, the warship suffered two engineering failures, a seawater leak in the hydraulic cooling system and a failure of one of its gas turbine engines, the U.S. Naval Institute reported.
After getting repaired in Florida, the ship was being moved out of the path of Hurricane Matthew on Oct. 4 when it collided with a tugboat and received a foot-long crack along a seam above the waterline.
This latest incident, which took place last week, has not taken the USS Montgomery off course. It is headed to its new homeport in San Diego, California.
The Panama Canal separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific. The ship was under the control of a local Panama Canal pilot when it struck the barrier, USNI reported.
The littoral combat ship (LCS) program is being overhauled after a series of mishaps with other ships in the program. Littoral ships including the USS Montgomery cost $360 million each, and four of the older ships have had mechanical problems since December. Those four will now be testing ships and will only be deployed for emergencies, CNN reported.
“As with any new ship class, the Navy constantly looks for ways to improve employment and deployment of its ships,” Navy spokesman Lt. Kara Yingling told CNN.