Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Tulsa (LCS-16) successfully completed acceptance trials March 9 after a series of in-port and underway demonstrations for the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).
Acceptance trials are the last significant milestone before delivery of the ship to the U.S. Navy. During trials, the Navy conducted comprehensive tests of the future USS Tulsa (LCS-16), intended to demonstrate the performance of the propulsion plant, ship handling abilities and auxiliary systems.
«The Navy and industry trials team in Mobile executed another solid Acceptance Trials. The performance of the ship demonstrated incorporation of lessons learned and continual ship-over-ship improvements which will ultimately result in decreased cost to the Navy», said Captain Mike Taylor, LCS program manager. «Tulsa is well on track to provide needed LCS warfighting capability to the fleet and the nation».
While underway, the ship successfully demonstrated her bow thruster, twin boom extensible crane operations with the 11-meter/36-foot rigid-hull inflatable boat, completed surface and air self-defense detect-to-engage exercises and demonstrated the ship’s handling and maneuverability through high-speed steering and operation of her anchor.
USS Tulsa (LCS-16) will be commissioned into service following delivery, an industrial post-delivery availability and a post-delivery availability that is focused on crew training, certifications and familiarization exercises in Mobile. The ship will be homeported in San Diego with sister ships USS Independence (LCS-2), USS Coronado (LCS-4), USS Jackson (LCS-6), USS Montgomery (LCS-8), USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), USS Omaha (LCS-12), and the future USS Manchester (LCS-14), which delivered February 28 and will be commissioned on May 26 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Several more Independence-variant ships are under construction at Austal USA in Mobile. USS Charleston (LCS-18), USS Cincinnati (LCS-20), USS Kansas City (LCS-22), USS Oakland (LCS-24) and USS Mobile (LCS-26) are in varying stages of construction. In addition to these hulls, contracts for USS Savannah (LCS-28) and LCS-30 were awarded to Austal in 2017.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and mine countermeasures missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain, and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical theaters.
Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships is responsible for delivering and sustaining littoral mission capabilities to the fleet.
The Independence Variant of the LCS Class
| PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS | |
| Construction | Hull and superstructure – aluminium alloy |
| Length overall | 421 feet/128.3 m |
| Beam overall | 103 feet/31.4 m |
| Hull draft (maximum) | 14.8 feet/4.5 m |
| PAYLOAD AND CAPACITIES | |
| Complement | Core Crew – 40 |
| Mission crew – 36 | |
| Berthing | 76 in a mix of single, double & quad berthing compartments |
| Maximum mission load | 210 tonnes |
| Mission Bay Volume | 118,403 feet3/11,000 m3 |
| Mission packages | Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) |
| Surface Warfare (SUW) | |
| Mine Warfare (MIW) | |
| PROPULSION | |
| Main engines | 2 × GE LM2500 |
| 2 × MTU 20V 8000 | |
| Waterjets | 4 × Wartsila steerable |
| Bow thruster | Retractable azimuthing |
| PERFORMANCE | |
| Speed | 40 knots/46 mph/74 km/h |
| Range | 3,500 NM/4,028 miles/6,482 km |
| Operational limitation | Survival in Sea State 8 |
| MISSION/LOGISTICS DECK | |
| Deck area | >21,527.8 feet2/2,000 m2 |
| Launch and recovery | Twin boom extending crane |
| Loading | Side ramp |
| Internal elevator to hanger | |
| Launch/Recover Watercraft | Sea State 4 |
| FLIGHT DECK AND HANGER | |
| Flight deck dimensions | 2 × SH-60 or 1 × CH-53 or multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Vertical Take-off and Land Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs/VTUAVs) |
| Hanger | Aircraft stowage & maintenance for 2 × SH-60 |
| Launch/Recover Aircraft | Sea State 5 |
| WEAPONS AND SENSORS | |
| Standard | 1 × 57-mm gun |
| 4 × 12.7-mm/.50 caliber guns | |
| 1 × Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) launcher | |
| 3 × weapons modules | |
Independence-class
| Ship | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| USS Independence (LCS-2) | 01-19-2006 | 04-26-2008 | 01-16-2010 | San Diego, California |
| USS Coronado (LCS-4) | 12-17-2009 | 01-14-2012 | 04-05-2014 | San Diego, California |
| USS Jackson (LCS-6) | 08-01-2011 | 12-14-2013 | 12-05-2015 | San Diego, California |
| USS Montgomery (LCS-8) | 06-25-2013 | 08-06-2014 | 09-10-2016 | San Diego, California |
| USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) | 04-16-2014 | 02-25-2015 | 06-10-2017 | San Diego, California |
| USS Omaha (LCS-12) | 02-18-2015 | 11-20-2015 | 02-03-2018 | San Diego, California |
| USS Manchester (LCS-14) | 06-29-2015 | 05-12-2016 | San Diego, California | |
| USS Tulsa (LCS-16) | 01-11-2016 | San Diego, California | ||
| USS Charleston (LCS-18) | 06-28-2016 | |||
| USS Cincinnati (LCS-20) | 04-10-2017 | |||
| USS Kansas City (LCS-22) | 11-15-2017 | |||
| USS Oakland (LCS-24) | ||||
| USS Mobile (LCS-26) | ||||
| USS Savannah (LCS-28) | ||||
| USS Canberra (LCS-30) |