Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, Detroit (LCS 7), became the newest LCS to join the U.S. Navy fleet during an October 22 ceremony in Detroit.
USS Detroit, the fourth Freedom-variant in the LCS class, completed acceptance trials in July and was delivered to the U.S. Navy on August 12. It joins three other Freedom-variant ships in the fleet: USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) and USS Milwaukee (LCS 5).
LCS 7 is the sixth U.S. Navy ship to be named in honor of city of Detroit.
The first USS Detroit was a British sloop of war captured by the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812. The screw sloop of war Canandaigua was renamed Detroit for a brief time in 1869, but returned to her original name that year. A turn of the century cruiser served for nearly 15 years. In 1923, another cruiser was commissioned and served throughout World War II, earning six battle stars. The most recent ship named Detroit was a fast combat support ship that served from 1969 to 2005.
The LCS class consists of 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 (for the odd-numbered hulls, e.g. LCS 1). The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls).
According to Lockheed Martin, Freedom-variant ships have collectively sailed over 225,000 nautical miles and completed two overseas deployments.