The US Navy has commissioned its newest Freedom-class variant, the USS Detroit littoral combat ship (LCS 7), in Michigan.
USS Detroit represents the nation’s seventh LCS and the fourth Freedom-variant LCS to join the US Navy.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said: "This ship represents so much. It represents the city of Detroit, the motor city.
“It represents the highly-skilled American workers of our nation's industrial base, the men and women who built this great warship; and it represents the American spirit of hard work, patriotism and perseverance.
“The USS Detroit will carry these values around the world for decades to come as the newest ship in our nation's growing fleet."
USS Detroit features a steel monohull which offers stability and reliability, while its reconfigurable shipboard space makes the hull suitable to accommodate additional lethality and survivability upgrades on the Freedom-class vessel.
The LCS offers a fast, agile, focused-mission platform to operate in near-shore as well as open-ocean environments.
The vessel has been designed to combat and defeat asymmetric anti-access threats, such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.
Each LCS seaframe will be equipped with a single mission package, called mission modules, which contain warfighting systems and support equipment.
The ship crew will integrate with the aviation assets to deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors for mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare or surface warfare missions.
The LCS class is being built in two variants, the Freedom-class and Independence-class, by two industry teams led by Lockheed Martin and Austal respectively.
Lockheed is currently constructing six Freedom-variant ships at Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), with three more in long-lead material procurement.
Image: USS Detroit (LCS 7) undergoing acceptance trials. Photo: courtesy of US Navy Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin-Michael Rote/Released.
