U.S. Navy Commissions USS Detroit

The U.S. Navy commissioned the nation's seventh Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) – USS Detroit (LCS 7) – on the Detroit River on Saturday.

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 by Lockheed Martin. It joins three other Freedom-variant ships in the fleet: USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) and USS Milwaukee (LCS 5). Collectively, Freedom-variant ships have sailed over 225,000 nautical miles and successfully completed two overseas deployments.

USS Detroit is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric "anti-access" threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.

The Freedom-variant's steel monohull is based on a proven, survivable design recognized for its stability and reliability. With 40 percent reconfigurable shipboard space, the hull is ideally suited to accommodate additional lethality and survivability upgrades associated with the Freedom-variant Frigate.

LCS 7 is the sixth U.S. Navy ship named USS Detroit. Previous ships to bear the name included a Sacramento-class fast combat support ship, an Omaha-class light cruiser, a Montgomery-class cruiser and two 19th century sloops of war.

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).

The Lockheed Martin-led LCS team is comprised of shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine, naval architect Gibbs & Cox, and more than 500 suppliers in 37 states. The team is currently in full-rate production of the Freedom-variant, with six ships under construction and three more in long-lead material procurement.