U.S. Navy to Name Littoral Combat Ship

Sec­re­tary of the Navy Ray Mabus will announce the nam­ing of the next Inde­pen­dence vari­ant lit­toral com­bat ship (LCS) at 2 p.m. EST on Fri­day, Feb. 10 at the Pen­ta­gon Cen­ter Court­yard.

The ship will be the 10th ship in the LCS series and the fifth of the Inde­pen­dence vari­ant. The ship is part of a dual block buy of LCS class ships announced by Mabus in Decem­ber 2010. The LCS 10 will be 419 feet in length, have a water­line beam of 103 feet, dis­place approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 tons, and will make speed in excess of 40 knots. Con­struc­tion of LCS 10 will be by Austal Ship­build­ing in Mobile, Ala. 

The LCS per­forms a vital role in the Navy’s abil­i­ty to exe­cute DoD’s defense strat­e­gy. The LCS 10 will be designed to defeat grow­ing lit­toral threats and pro­vide access and dom­i­nance in the coastal waters. A fast, agile sur­face com­bat­ant, the LCS pro­vides the required warfight­ing capa­bil­i­ties and oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty to exe­cute focused mis­sions close to the shore such as mine war­fare, anti-sub­ma­rine war­fare and sur­face warfare. 

For­mer Rep. Ike Skel­ton, for­mer Rep. Gabrielle Gif­fords, and Rox­an­na Green will be attend­ing the event. Green is the moth­er of Christi­na-Tay­lor Green, the nine-year-old girl who was killed while attend­ing the meet­ing of con­stituents where Gif­fords was shot dur­ing an assas­si­na­tion attempt in Jan­u­ary 2011. 

Inter­est­ed media may con­tact the sec­re­tary of the Navy Pub­lic Affairs, 703–697-7491. Infor­ma­tion on LCS is avail­able online at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_print.asp?cid=4200&tid=1650&ct=4&page=1 .

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)