The U.S. Navy has christened the USS Nantucket, its 14th and newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship that was constructed by a team from Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine under a multi-million contract awarded in 2017.
FMM released a LinkedIn post featuring the Saturday cermony that saw the vessel being launched into the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin.
In a pre-event release, Thomas Harker of the Navy, said the crew of USS Nantucket, or LCS 27, will help maintain U.S. maritime security, address domain instability and preserve sea lanes.
In October 2017, the industry team secured a contract to provide the service branch with more LCS. The value of the award is under the 2017 congressional cost limit of $584 million per ship. Lockheed and FMM kicked off the construction of LCS 27 in October 2017 by laying the keel of the new LCS.