The consortium comprising Fincantieri, through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), and Lockheed Martin has delivered the future USS St Louis, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 19 to the US Navy at FMM’s shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin.
Designed to evolve with the changing security environment, the Freedom-variant LCS delivers advanced capability in anti-submarine, surface, and mine countermeasure missions.
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Lockheed Martin is collaborating with the US Navy to advance LCS to address the demand for an increase in near-peer competition from large nation-states.
LCS computing infrastructures are currently receiving cyber upgrades. Naval strike missiles are also being installed in order to support upcoming deployments.
Lockheed Martin Small Combatants and Ship Systems vice-president and general manager Joe DePietro said: “With LCS 19’s delivery, the US Navy has ten Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ships in the fleet.
“LCS 7 recently deployed, and it is gratifying to know that our team has delivered a ship that is relevant for today’s fight and that is needed around the world.”
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By GlobalDataLCS 19, which has been designed, built and delivered by the Lockheed Martin-led industry team, is the tenth Freedom-variant combat ship. It will be commissioned in Pensacola, Florida this year.
Prior to its delivery, the navy completed acceptance trials of the combat ship in Lake Michigan in December last year, marking the final phase of trials ahead of delivery.
To date, the Fincantieri and Lockheed Martin have delivered ten ships to the US Navy. There are currently six ships in various stages of construction at FMM’s shipyard.
FMM secured the construction contract for the LCS Program Freedom-variant in 2010, within the partnership by Lockheed Martin.
It is one of the navy’s main shipbuilding programmes and is related to a new generation of mid-sized multirole vessels.
These vessels are designed for surveillance activities and coastal defence and perform deepwater operations. They are also capable of addressing asymmetrical threats such as mines, silent diesel submarines, and fast surface ships.
