The US Navy is christening and launching its last Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, the future USS Cleveland (LCS 31), in a ceremony in Marinette, Wisconsin, on Saturday.
This event also marks the last planned side-launch of a ship at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, with follow-on ships planned to be launched using a shiplift system.
It is worth noting that the launch of LCS 31 is taking place as its sister ships are being retired, some even with less than 10 years in service. The USS Little Rock was scheduled for decommissioning after not even six years of service due to design flaws.
The ships have been plagued by problems ever since they started entering service, with two major problems being the combining gear issues that prevented Freedom-variant units from reaching their maximum speeds in addition to seeing them break down often and prompting the navy to halt deliveries of new ships in 2021 until the problem is fixed. The second major problem are the delays in the development of mission packages that were envisioned as allowing the ships to perform either mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare or surface warfare missions.
Cleveland is the 16th and final Freedom-variant LCS and the fourth ship to be named in honor of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Previous USS Cleveland’s were the World War I cruiser (C 19), the World War II light cruiser (CL 55), and the Vietnam-era amphibious transport dock (LPD 7), decommissioned in 2011.
The LCS class consists of two variants, Freedom and Independence, designed and built by two separate industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin (for the odd-numbered hulls, e.g. LCS 1). It is a steel monohull design constructed by Lockheed Martin in the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corporation’s shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin.
The Independence-class has experienced fewer technical issues than the Freedom-class, but these ships are also on the decommissioning schedule. As it currently stands, the service is looking to decommission Independence-variant ships USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8) in fiscal year 2024.
