Lockheed Martin and naval shipbuilding company Fincantieri Marinette Marine have delivered a fifth Freedom-variant littoral combat ship to the U.S. Navy following the completion of acceptance trials.
The Navy accepted delivery of its future USS Little Rock and the service branch is scheduled to commission the new warship later this year, Lockheed said Monday.
LCS9 received the highest score of the five Freedom-class ships completed to date during acceptance trials held in August.
The industry team aims to incorporate improvements observed in the ship’s performance during at-sea tests into succeeding LCS.
Lockheed also partnered with naval architecture firm Gibbs and Cox and more than 800 technology suppliers to build the Navy’s Freedom-class ships.