Austal USA has completed its acceptance trials of the US Navy’s future USS Kingsville littoral combat ship (LCS 36) in the Gulf of Mexico.
The event included a series of tests to evaluate the vessel’s equipment and capabilities according to the US Department of Defense’s shipbuilding and compliance standards.
The trials were facilitated in partnership with the US Navy Board of Inspection and Survey.
“The completion of trials combined with the recent delivery of USNS Cody (EPF 14) adds up to a successful start to 2024 for Austal USA,” Austal USA New Construction Programs VP Dave Growden stated.
“Congratulations to our Austal USA shipbuilders, vendors and our Navy teammates who coordinated to accomplish this successful milestone getting the ship ready for delivery in a couple of weeks.”
LCS 36’s acceptance trials followed its christening ceremony in April 2023 at Austal’s Mobile shipyard in Alabama.
Independence-Class LCSs
Kingsville is the 18th Independence-class vessel being developed for near-shore and open ocean battlefields.
Each ship under the fleet is equipped with electronic warfare, automatic naval guns, Bushmaster chain guns, Naval Strike Missiles, and Hellfire missiles.
The warship has a speed of 44 knots (81 kilometers/51 miles per hour) and can carry aircraft such as the UH-60 Black Hawk maritime variant Seahawk and MQ-9 Fire Scout drones.
Alongside Austal, the US Department of Defense is in cooperation with Lockheed Martin to produce Freedom-class LCS, a parallel version of the Independence systems.