The Ship Model Forum

Future Navy Warship Completes Trials on Lake Michigan
25 Aug 2020
MLive.com, Walker, Mich. | By Brandon Champion

A future U.S. Navy combat ship completed acceptance trials in Lake Michigan over the weekend setting the stage for it to be commissioned in 2021.

Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 21, the future USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, passed several trials including a full-power run, maneuverability testing and surface and air detect-to-engage demonstrations of the ship's combat system.

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Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships Will Be on the Front Lines in the Pacific, SWO Boss Says
13 Jan 2021
Military.com | By Gina Harkins
After years of setbacks, the Navy's littoral combat ships are going to see a surge in missions in the Pacific, where leaders say they'll be out front as the U.S. seeks to counter China's growing influence in the region.
The Navy has identified the missions the LCS will fulfill in U.S. 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander of Naval Surface Forces, said this week."If you look at the things we want to do and the 7th Fleet ... that's what [Vice Adm. William Merz] wants to use them for," Kitchener said Tuesday during the annual Surface Navy Association symposium, which is virtual this year due to the pandemic. "And there's a lot of capability there.

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Navy Unveils Surprise Plan For Littoral Combat Ships
Every LCS will be equipped with the new Naval Strike Missile as well as either anti-submarine or anti-mine capabilities within 18 months, CNO Adm. Michael Gilday told the HAC-D today.
By PAUL MCLEARYon April 29, 2021 at 2:15 P
WASHINGTON: The Navy plans to put its new Naval Strike Missile on 31 of its 35 Littoral Combat ships over the next 18 months, while outfitting 15 ships with an anti-submarine module, and 15 others with anti-mine capabilities.
That breakneck pace of the proposed LCS upgrades is the clearest sign yet of the Navy’s concern over its being outgunned by the Chinese surface navy, and the premium being placed on keeping eye on new generations of capable Chinese and Russian submarines prowling below.
The new details were offered by Adm. Mike Gilday in testimony before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, representing his most ambitious public comments concerning the LCS fleet to date.
The LCS class has struggled to find a place in the fleet after its original mission modules — designed to be moved on and off ships given whatever mission they were performing — failed to develop as planned. But Adm. Mike Gilday told the committee today, “we’re very bullish on LCS” moving forward, a departure from previous comments where he portrayed the class as a problem to be surmounted.
Earlier this year, the Navy announced it would stop accepting delivery of the Lockheed Martin-built Freedom-class LCS while the company tests and fixes a major propulsion issue found on all 16 ships. The halt was another black eye for a program that has yet to prove its utility, despite the delivery of around 20 ships across two classes over the past decade.
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US Navy to christen ship named for Australian capital
6 hrs ago
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — The Navy will christen a ship made in Alabama on Saturday, naming it after Australia’s capital city.
The littoral combat ship will be the second ship named the USS Canberra, according to a Navy news release sent Friday.
Australian Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos will give the main speech and his wife, Elizabeth Anne Sinodinos, will break a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow.
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Freedom LCS community to tackle mine warfare, grow its footprint in 2022
By Megan Eckstein
Jan 10, 07:00 AM

NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. — This year, the troubled Freedom-variant littoral combat ship will look to catch up with its Independence-class counterparts, which were fielded faster and expanded their operations more broadly in the last several years.

It was just two years ago that the U.S. Navy’s first Freedom LCS deployed from Florida, with Detroit’s maiden deployment kicking off routine operations out of the East Coast’s LCS hub in Jacksonville, Florida.

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First LCS deploys to European waters in 6th Fleet
By Megan Eckstein
Thursday, May 5

WASHINGTON — A littoral combat ship is headed to European waters for the first time, with the Freedom-variant LCS Sioux City leaving its Florida home port to operate in U.S. 6th Fleet’s area of responsibility.

The deployment is years in the making, after the Navy intended to push an LCS into 6th Fleet in 2020 but was hindered by a classwide technical flaw that emerged.


The fleet’s area of responsibility includes waters in Europe and Africa, but the Navy did not state specifically where the ship may operate.

“Sioux City’s deployment allows us to integrate the LCS’ unique operational capability into our already diverse fleet,” 6th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Gene Black said in a Navy news release. “The agility of Littoral Combat Ships allows them to operate in both near-shore and open-ocean environments, enhancing our ability to provide security and stability across the European theater.”

The San Diego-based LCSs have made more progress operationally, with the first deployment to the Western Pacific taking place in 2013 and the Independent-variant LCSs having a routine presence there since 2019. However, on the East Coast, Freedom-variant ships struggled with technical issues.

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