The General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship Team (GD LCS Team) christened the LCS 2 Independence October 4, on the waters of the at the Austal USA shipyard. Present at the Christening Ceremony were over 1,000 guests and dignitaries. The Ship Sponsor was Doreen A. Scott, wife of the 10th Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Terry D. Scott. She was joined by her daughter, Maid of Honor, Lauren A. Scott, but her daughter, Matron of Honor Ensign Lindsay Fatz, USN, was out of the country on orders.
Speakers at the ceremony included: Robert Browning, Managing director and CEO, Austal Ltd.; Dugan Shipway, President, Bath Iron Works; the Honorable Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition); the Honorable Donald Winter, Secretary of the Navy; the Honorable Jo Bonner, U.S. Representative, Alabama’s First District; and the Principal Speaker, Senator Jeff Sessions, from Alabama.
The LCS 2 is the first ship built by Austal for the U.S. Navy and the Navy’s first trimaran littoral combat ship. It is the first naval warship constructed in since World War II.
Since its keel laying in January 2006, has steadily progressed within Austal ’s purpose built construction facility in , toward becoming a formidable warship. The Christening Ceremony offered the shipbuilder the opportunity to display the progress made thus far to over 1,000 participants.
The 127-meter Austal trimaran seaframe is the platform for the LCS’s mission and weapon systems. This seaframe provides superior seakeeping and aviation as a result of its long, slender central hull and smaller side hulls (“amahs”). The trimaran hullform provides a huge internal mission deck with a large payload carrying capacity and superior seakeeping capability. Located above the mission bay is the largest flight deck on a surface combatant capable of conducting dual H-60 helicopter operations and accommodating the US Navy’s largest helicopter, an H-53, a feature not available on similar size naval warships. The vertical location of the flight deck on the trimaran hull form provides the highest flight deck elevation on a combatant ship other than a major amphibious vessel or aircraft carrier.