MARINETTE, Wis., June 7 (UPI) -- A third Littoral Combat Ship has been delivered to the U.S. Navy by a Lockheed Martin industry team two months ahead of schedule following acceptance trials.
The future USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) is the second LCS of the steel, semi-planing monohull Freedom variant. It will remain at the Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard in Wisconsin before being transported to Galveston, Texas, for commissioning in September.
"Fort Worth showed significant improvement during her trials when compared to the first ship of the class, USS Freedom," said Rear Adm. James Murdoch, program executive officer for Littoral Combat Ships.
"We've had two years to operate Freedom at sea, identifying typical, first-of-class deficiencies, learning lessons on her design and rolling those lessons into Fort Worth. That experience, plus the introduction of improved construction processes and shipbuilder facilities, greatly benefitted Fort Worth."
LCS is a high-speed, shallow-draft vessel for shallow water and near-shore operations. The Navy says the 387-foot Fort Worth will be equipped with reconfigurable payloads for mine counter-measures, surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare.
Lockheed's team in building the ship included Marinette Marine Corp. and naval architect Gibbs and Cox.
