US Navy to christen new littoral combat ship

The US Navy will christen its newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, USS St. Louis (LCS 19), during a ceremony in Marinette, Wisconsin, on December 15.

The future USS St. Louis, designated LCS 19, honors Missouri’s major port city along the Mississippi River.

“The future USS St. Louis honors not just the great city of St. Louis, Missouri, but also the skilled industrial workforce who built this ship,” Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said.

“This christening marks the transition of USS St. Louis being a mere hull number to a ship with a name and a spirit, and is a testament to the increased lethality and readiness made possible by the combined effort between our industrial partners and the Navy and Marine Corps team,” he added.

She will be the seventh ship to bear the name St. Louis. The first was a sloop of war, the second a Civil War gunboat, followed by a Spanish-American War-era steamer troop ship, a World War I cruiser, a World War II light cruiser, and a Cold War era attack cargo ship.

With a displacement of 3,450 tons, the newbuilding has a length of 115.3 meters and a width of 17.5 meters.

The future USS St. Louis is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments as well as the open-ocean. It is designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.

#LCS19 has left the building! On December 15, the future USS St. Louis will be christened. Learn more about the Littoral Combat Ship here: https://t.co/Zzmh7ghvms pic.twitter.com/u7Q3LCtTT0

— Lockheed Martin (@LockheedMartin) December 6, 2018