The Navy has accepted the third Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship Milwaukee (LCS-5) in a Friday ceremony, the service announced.
The 3,400-ton ship is the sixth LCS overall to enter Navy service and will commission in Milwaukee before transiting to its homeport at Naval Station San Diego, Calif.
The ship will join USS Freedom (LCS-1) and USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) and Austal USA built ships USS Independence (LCS-2), USS Coronado (LCS-4) and the soon-to-be-commissioned Jackson (LCS-6) in San Diego following its Nov. 21 commissioning.
Milwaukee completed and passed its acceptance trials in mid-September during a five-day trial period in the Great Lakes near the Marinette Marine Shipyard in Wisconsin.
When the ship commissions in November it will be the first ship to enter the service from a 2010 $8.9 billion block-buy deal between Austal USA and Lockheed Martin for 20 LCS — 10 of each variant.
“With each LCS delivered, we have succeeded in driving down costs by incorporating lessons learned to provide the Navy with a highly capable and flexible ship,” said LCS program manager Capt. Tom Anderson in a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) statement.
“We are honored to place the Milwaukee in the able hands of her crew as they set sail for the ship’s commissioning.”
Prior to the block-buy, Lockheed and General Dynamics were tasked with building two of each variant desgined to replace the Navy’s mine counter measure and Oliver Hazard Perry-frigate
Now the Navy is working on creating a follow on to the Flight 0 versions of each ship with a new more heavily armed frigate based on each of the LCS designs.
The following is the complete Oct. 16, 2015 statement from the Navy on the Milwaukee’s delivery.
MARINETTE, Wis (NNS) — The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the future USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) during a ceremony at the Marinette Marine Corporation shipyard Oct. 16.
Milwaukee is the sixth littoral combat ship to be delivered to the Navy and the third of the Freedom variant to join the fleet.
Delivery marks the official transfer of LCS 5 from a Lockheed Martin-led team to the Navy. It is the final milestone prior to commissioning, which is planned for Nov. 21 in its namesake city.
“With each LCS delivered, we have succeeded in driving down costs by incorporating lessons learned to provide the Navy with a highly capable and flexible ship,” said LCS program manager Capt. Tom Anderson. “We are honored to place the Milwaukee in the able hands of her crew as they set sail for the ship’s commissioning.”
Capt. Warren R. Buller II, commander, Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One, was on hand to mark the occasion.
“We are pleased to receive the future USS Milwaukee into the LCS class,” said Buller. “Milwaukee is scheduled to conduct Full Ship Shock Trials before joining her sister littoral combat ships in their homeport of San Diego.”
Buller’s squadron supports the operational commanders with warships ready for tasking by manning, training, equipping, and maintaining all littoral combat ships in the fleet.
Following commissioning, Milwaukee will be homeported in San Diego with sister ships USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Independence (LCS 2), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), USS Coronado (LCS 4) and the future USS Jackson (LCS 6).
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, with three types of mission packages including surface warfare, mine countermeasures, and anti-submarine warfare. The Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships is responsible for delivering and sustaining littoral mission capabilities to the fleet. Delivering high-quality warfighting assets while balancing affordability and capability is key to supporting the nation’s maritime strategy.
