Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 11, the future USS Sioux City (LCS-11), completed Acceptance Trials in the waters of Lake Michigan. LCS-11 is the sixth Freedom-variant LCS designed and built by the Lockheed Martin-led industry team and is slated for delivery to the U.S. Navy later this summer.
«LCS-11’s completion of Acceptance Trials means this ship is one step closer to joining the fleet and conducting critical maritime operations for the Navy», said Joe DePietro, vice president, Small Combatants and Ship Systems at Lockheed Martin. «This ship is agile, powerful and lethal, and the industry team and I are looking forward to her delivery, commissioning and deployment».
The trials, conducted May 20-24, included surface and air detect-to-engage demonstrations of the ship’s combat system. Major systems and features were demonstrated, including aviation support, small boat launch handling and recovery and ride control.
«I am extremely proud of our LCS team including our shipbuilders at Fincantieri Marinette Marine», said Jan Allman, Fincantieri Marinette Marine President and CEO. «These are complex vessels, and it takes a strong team effort to design, build and test these American warships».
The future USS Sioux City (LCS-11) is one of eight ships in various stages of production and test at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, with one more in long-lead production.
The next Freedom-variant in the class is LCS-13, the future USS Wichita. LCS-13 is slated to complete Acceptance Trials in early summer with delivery this year.
Lockheed Martin’s Freedom-variant LCS is a highly maneuverable, lethal and adaptable ship, designed to support focused-missions in the areas of mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. The Freedom-variant LCS integrates new technology and capability to affordably support current and future mission capability from deep water to the littorals.
Ship Design Specifications
| Hull | Advanced semiplaning steel monohull |
| Length Overall | 389 feet/118.6 m |
| Beam Overall | 57 feet/17.5 m |
| Draft | 13.5 feet/4.1 m |
| Full Load Displacement | Approximately 3,200 metric tons |
| Top Speed | Greater than 40 knots/46 mph/74 km/h |
| Range at top speed | 1,000 NM/1,151 miles/1,852 km |
| Range at cruise speed | 4,000 NM/4,603 miles/7,408 km |
| Watercraft Launch and Recovery | Up to Sea State 4 |
| Aircraft Launch and Recovery | Up to Sea State 5 |
| Propulsion | Combined diesel and gas turbine with steerable water jet propulsion |
| Power | 85 MW/113,600 horsepower |
| Hangar Space | Two MH-60 Romeo Helicopters |
| One MH-60 Romeo Helicopter and three Vertical Take-off and Land Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicles (VTUAVs) | |
| Core Crew | Less than 50 |
| Accommodations for 75 sailors provide higher sailor quality of life than current fleet | |
| Integrated Bridge System | Fully digital nautical charts are interfaced to ship sensors to support safe ship operation |
| Core Self-Defense Suite | Includes 3D air search radar |
| Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) gunfire control system | |
| Rolling-Airframe Missile Launching System | |
| 57-mm Main Gun | |
| Mine, Torpedo Detection | |
| Decoy Launching System |
Freedom-class
| Ship | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Homeport |
| USS Freedom (LCS-1) | 06-02-2005 | 09-23-2006 | 11-08-2008 | San Diego, California |
| USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) | 07-11-2009 | 12-07-2010 | 09-22-2012 | San Diego, California |
| USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) | 10-27-2011 | 12-18-2013 | 11-21-2015 | San Diego, California |
| USS Detroit (LCS-7) | 08-11-2012 | 10-18-2014 | 10-22-2016 | San Diego, California |
| USS Little Rock (LCS-9) | 06-27-2013 | 07-18-2015 | 12-16-2017 | San Diego, California |
| USS Sioux City (LCS-11) | 02-19-2014 | 01-30-2016 | ||
| USS Wichita (LCS-13) | 02-09-2015 | 09-17-2016 | ||
| USS Billings (LCS-15) | 11-02-2015 | 07-01-2017 | ||
| USS Indianapolis (LCS-17) | 07-18-2016 | 04-14-2018 | ||
| USS St. Louis (LCS-19) | 05-17-2017 | |||
| USS Minneapolis/St. Paul (LCS-21) | 02-22-2018 | |||
| USS Cooperstown (LCS-23) | ||||
| USS Marinette LCS-25 | ||||
| USS Nantucket (LCS-27) |
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