Last week, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, laid the keel for the US Navy’s new Independence-class littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Canberra.
The keel laying ceremony was held at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, on March 10, 2020.
The LCS 30 will be a 127-meter-long frigate-sized vessel designed to support focused mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare missions.
It is the second warship to bear the name USS Canberra in honor of HMAS Canberra, lost at the Battle of Savo Island in 1942 along with three US heavy cruisers.
Austal USA is contracted to deliver nineteen littoral combat ships to the US Navy, with eleven ships already delivered.
General Dynamics was the prime contractor for LCS 2 (USS Independence) and LCS 4 (USS Coronado), whilst Austal has been the Prime contractor for all Independence-variant LCS thereafter (from LCS 6 onwards).
Naval Today Staff