USS Indianapolis christened
The US Navy’s newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), USS Indianapolis, has been christened in Marinette, Wisconsin.
The future USS Indianapolis is designed for operation in near-shore and open-ocean environments to defeat asymmetric anti-access threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, designed to meet requirements for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasure missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these areas.
The LCS class is being built in two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin, while the Independence variant team is led by Austal USA.
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