Photo: Austal delivers USS Montgomery to US Navy

The U.S. Navy has received the future USS Montgomery (LCS 8) from Austal during a ceremony held aboard USS Montgomery at the shipbuilder’s yard in Alabama on June 23.

Delivery of LCS 8 marks the fourth Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS) Austal has delivered to the Navy. Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton also said that this was the second vessel that Austal has delivered as the prime contractor.

Six additional LCS remain under construction in Mobile as part of an 11-ship contract worth over US$3.5 billion from the U.S. Navy.

Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), Omaha (LCS 12) and Manchester (LCS 14) are all preparing for trials. Assembly is well underway on Tulsa (LCS 16) and Charleston (LCS 18) while modules for Cincinnati (LCS 20) are under construction in Austal’s module manufacturing facility.