Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship

The Independence-class is a class of littoral combat ships built for the United States Navy.

The hull design evolved from a project at Austal to design a 40 knot cruise ship. That hull design evolved into the high-speed trimaran ferry HSC Benchijigua Express and the Independence-class was then proposed by General Dynamics and Austal as a contender for Navy plans to build a fleet of small, multipurpose warships to operate in the littoral zone. Two ships were approved, to compete with Lockheed Martin's Freedom-class design for a construction contract of up to 55 vessels.

As of 2010, the lead ship is active, while a second ship, Coronado, is under construction. Despite initial plans to only accept one of the Independence and Freedom-classes, the Navy has requested that Congress order ten additional ships of each class, for a total 12 ships per class. In February 2012, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that the fifth Independence-class littoral combat ship will be named USS Shreveport, and the sixth USS Omaha. In April 2013, the name Manchester was assigned to LCS-14, while in June 2013, the name Tulsa was assigned to LCS-16.

Specifications

 * Type: Littoral Combat Ship (Hull designation symbol LCS)
 * Service Period: 2008-Present
 * Characteristics:
 * Length: 418 feet (127.41 meters)
 * Beam: 104 feet (31.7 meters)
 * Draft: 14 feet (4.27 meters)
 * Displacement: 3,421.57 tons (Full Load)
 * Capacity: 231 tons
 * Crew: 75
 * Propulsion: 2 MTU Friedrichshafen 20V 8000 Series diesel engines, 2 General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 American VULKAN light weight multiple-section carbon fiber propulsion shaftlines, 2 LJ160E and 2 LJ150E Wärtsilä waterjets, retractable bow-mounted azimuth thruster, 4 diesel generators
 * Range: 4,300 nautical miles (7,964 kilometers) at 18 knots (33.34 km/h)
 * Speed: 44 knots (81.49 km/h)
 * Sensor Suite:
 * SAAB Sea GIRAFFE 3D air and surface search radar
 * Sperry Marine BridgeMaster E navigational radar
 * AN/KAX-2 electro-optical sensor with TV and FLIR
 * Northrop Grumman ICMS (Integrated Combat Management System)
 * Countermeasures:
 * ITT Corporation ES-3601 ESM system
 * SRBOC decoy launchers for chaff and infrared decoys x 4
 * BAE Systems NULKA active radar decoy system
 * Armament:
 * 1 x Mk.110 57mm/L70 naval gun
 * 1 x Mk.41 VLS (8-cells)
 * 1 x AGM-175 Griffin
 * 1 x Mk.49 Missile Launcher (fires RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles)
 * 4 x 12.7mm machine guns
 * Aircraft Carried: 2 x MH-60R/S Seahawk, 1 x MQ-8 Fire Scout

Unit Run

 * USS Independence (LCS-2)
 * USS Coronado (LCS-4)
 * USS Jackson (LCS-6)
 * USS Montgomery (LCS-8)
 * USS Shreveport (LCS-10)
 * USS Omaha (LCS-12)
 * USS Manchester (LCS-14)
 * USS Tulsa (LCS-16)
 * USS Charleston (LCS-18)