US Navy Commissions Latest Littoral Combat Ship

Lockheed Martin manufactured seventh Littoral Combat Ship USS Detroit has been commissioned by the US Navy on Saturday.

USS Detroit is the fourth Freedom-variant in the LCS class. It completed acceptance trials in July and was handed over to the US Navy on August 12.

It joins three other Freedom-variant ships in the fleet: USS Freedom (LCS 1), USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) and USS Milwaukee (LCS 5), the company announced Saturday.

Freedom-variant ships have sailed over 225,000 nautical miles and completed two overseas deployments.

The Lockheed Martin-led industry team is currently in full-rate production of the Freedom-variant, with six ships under construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) and three more in long-lead material procurement. The ship's modular design and affordable price enables the US Navy to provide presence where and when needed at a fraction of the cost of other platforms.

LCS 7 is the sixth US 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.