The surface force will net a total of seven Littoral Combat Ships after the Navy shelved plans to decommission the hulls ...

Why US Navy Can't Quit Its Flawed LCS. Facing a shrinking fleet and a widening naval gap with China, USNI reported this month that the US Navy is giving its troubled Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) a ...

Shipbuilder Austal USA delivered the final Independence-class littoral combat ship to the U.S. Navy on Friday, marking the end of a construction phase that’s lasted 15 years. The Alabama-based Austal ...

The final Independence-class LCS will now be retooled for mine warfare, and the ships may finally serve a helpful purpose, replacing aging minesweepers. Last week, Austal USA delivered the 19th and ...

The USS Kingsville, one of the last Independence-class littoral combat ships built for the Navy, was christened Saturday in Corpus Christi, Texas. Cmdr. Ludwig Mann III, Kingsville’s commanding ...

As the Navy seeks to improve the self-sufficiency of its littoral combat ships, the service is moving to have sailors conduct nearly all the maintenance for the vessels in the near future, according ...

March 8, 2024: This year the U.S. Navy decided to reverse its plan to quickly discard its remaining LCS (Littoral Combat Ships) and instead upgrade many of them. In late 2023 it came as no surprise ...

The USS Kingsville, one of the last Independence-class littoral combat ships built for the Navy, has successfully completed acceptance trials and will become homeported in San Diego later this year.

Kingsville (LCS-38) pier-side at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 31, 2024. Austal USA Photo The Navy’s penultimate aluminum Littoral Combat Ship was accepted into the service late last ...

Key Points and Summary - The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program is presented as a deeply flawed naval experiment. The decision to build two competing designs, the Freedom and Independence classes, ...