Austal hosts christening for Navy's tenth Independence-variant LCS 20
Austal on May 6 held the christening ceremony for the Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship 20 (LCS 20) at Mobile ship manufacturing facility. The USS Cincinnati will be the tenth of 15 Independence-variant LCSs Austal USA has under contract with the U.S. Navy at a combined value of over $4.5 billion, the shipbuilding firm said in a press release.
The Independence-variant LCS is a high-speed, agile, shallow draft, focused-mission surface combatant designed to conduct Surface Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, and Mine Countermeasures missions in the littoral region. With its open architecture design, the LCS can support modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to capture and sustain littoral maritime supremacy.
“We’re very proud of what Austal USA has achieved in the LCS Program. The future USS Cincinnati will set another benchmark for cost, schedule, quality and capability for the LCS program thanks to the dedicated work of our team” Austal CEO, David Singleton said.
“Austal continues to focus on providing the most cost-effective and capable small surface combatants in the world to the US Navy. We stand ready with the capacity to efficiently assist with the build to achieve the growth plan of a 355-ship fleet” he said.
In 2018 Austal has delivered two LCSs to the Navy, with another five under construction. LCS 18 is preparing for sea trials as LCS 20, 22, 24 and LCS 26 are following close behind. Additionally, Austal has two more LCSs in a pre-construction phase, LCS 28 and LCS 30 (USS Canberra).
In addition to being in full rate production for the LCS program, Austal is also the Navy’s prime contractor for the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) program. Austal has delivered nine EPF vessels, while an additional three are in various stages of construction.
Austal is a global defence prime contractor and a designer and manufacturer of defence and commercial ships. For more than 27 years Austal has been a leader in the design, construction and maintenance of revolutionary ships for governments, navies and ferry operators around the world. More than 255 vessels have been delivered in that time.
