The US Navy's newest ship has been towed to a base in Virginia after breaking down at sea.

The Navy Times reports (http://bit.ly/1UfolwL ) that the 4360m littoral combat ship, the USS Milwaukee, had to be towed more than 40 nautical miles to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek after suffering an engineering casualty.

The ship was on its way to Mayport, Florida from Halifax, Canada.

Officials say it appears that metal debris collected in the lube oil filer, causing the system to shut down.

The USS Milwaukee was built in Marinette, Wisconsin and was commissioned in November in Milwaukee. It's now making the trek to its home base in San Diego.

Officials say they will swap crews in Virginia while the ship's system is being repaired.

Senator John McCain said: “U.S. Navy ships are built with redundant systems to enable continued operation in the event of an engineering casualty, which makes this incident very concerning.