Dominique Stump
A team of industry partners led by Lockheed Martin laid the keel for the U.S. Navy‘s 17th littoral combat ship during a ceremony held at a Fincantieri Marinette Marine facility in Wisconsin.
The future USS Indianapolis (LCS 17) is the fourth ship to bear the name and is one of the seven ships currently in construction at Marinette Marine’s shipyard, Lockheed said Monday.
The initials of ship sponsor Jill Donnelly were engraved onto a steel plate that will be placed onto the ship hull as part of the keel authentication ceremony.
The industry team is in full-rate production of the Freedom-variant LCS, which has a steel monohull design to support the ship’s reliability and stability and a 40-percent reconfigurable shipboard space that works to accommodate additional lethality and survivability upgrades similar to the Freedom-class frigate.
Lockheed said the team comprised of the Marinette Marine, Gibbs & Cox and more than 500 suppliers across 37 states has already delivered three ships to the Navy.
