Monica Jackson
Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine have delivered two Freedom-class littoral combat ships to the U.S. Navy.
The USS Sioux City and USS Wichita vessels will be based at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., and commissioned in late 2018, Lockheed said Thursday.
LCS 11 and 13 will join the other ships such as USS Milwaukee, USS Detroit and USS Little Rock in the naval port.
The service branch now has seven out of eight Freedom-class ships it ordered from the Lockheed-led team.
“LCS is a growing component in the U.S. Navy surface force, designed to fulfill critical missions around the world now and in the future,” said Joe DePietro, vice president for small combatants and ship systems at Lockheed Martin.
The industry team designed the Freedom-class fleet to focus on missions such as countermeasures, anti-submarine and surface warfare.
Capt. Shawn Johnston, commander of LCS Squadron Two, noted that USS Wichita will be designated as the first East Coast Mine Warfare Division ship, as well as be used to assess modern mine warfare systems after its combat system trials.
