Austal USA delivered the final Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship to the Navy Friday, the shipbuilder announced. Future ...

The ship, which cost nearly $600 million to build, is the last Independence-class LCS to be built for the Navy.

This is probably the beginning of the end of the Littoral Combat Ship program. The U.S. Navy is preparing to build a new guided missile frigate, FFG(X), and the shipbuilding budget for 2021 is 20 ...

Half of the Navy’s littoral combat ship fleet is suffering from structural defects that have led to hull cracks on several vessels, limiting the speed and sea states in which some ships can ...

The littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS-6) sits pierside in San Diego, Calif. US Navy Photo. Unlike deploying warships that get time to train underway heading west from San Diego on deployment ...

Howard Berkof, Littoral Combat Ship deputy program manager for the Navy, tackled the question head-on. “Today’s keel-laying marks the ceremonial beginning of the ship’s life,” he said.

The littoral combat ship program launched in the early 2000s when the United States military was focused on combating irregular warfare targets, with strategy aimed at counterinsurgency.

What You Need to Know: The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, once envisioned as a multi-role, near-shore operational vessel, is now widely regarded as a mistake. -Persistent ...

This move is designed to shift away from the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) originally envisioned to perform many different tasks and afford the Navy greater flexibility in operations.

The U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ships ... (LCS 8), an Independence-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy, in Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao for a port visit.

In contrast, the longer-legged Independence class Littoral Combat Ship, USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), on the tail end of a long, 17-month deployment to Asia, arrived in Southern Command waters ...

Austal USA delivered the final Independence-class littoral combat ship (LCS) to the U.S. Navy on July 11, 2025.