US Navy Accepts Delivery of Future USS Montgomery
The U.S. Navy has accepted delivery of future USS Montgomery (LCS 8) during a ceremony on June 23 at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala.
Marking the official transfer of Montgomery from the shipbuilder to the Navy, delivery is the final milestone prior to commissioning, which is planned for September 2016.
“Today marks a significant milestone in the life of the future USS Montgomery, an exceptional ship which will conduct antisubmarine, surface and mine countermeasures operations around the globe with ever increasing mission package capability,” said Capt. Tom Anderson, LCS program manager. “I look forward to seeing Montgomery join her sister ships in San Diego this fall and deploy next year.”
LCS 8 is the seventh littoral combat ship to be delivered to the Navy, and the fourth delivered by Austal of the Independence variant, which is noted for its trimaran hull.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, with three types of mission packages including surface warfare, mine countermeasures and antisubmarine warfare. The LCS class consists of the Freedom variant and 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 follow-on even-numbered hulls).
Austal Chief Executive Officer, David Singleton, said Montgomery is the second vessel that Austal has delivered as the prime contractor. Six additional LCS remain under construction in Mobile as part of an 11-ship contract worth more than $3.5 billion from the U.S. Navy. According to the shipbuilder, Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), Omaha (LCS 12) and Manchester (LCS 14) are all preparing for trials, while assembly is well underway on Tulsa (LCS 16) and Charleston (LCS 18) and modules for Cincinnati (LCS 20) are under construction in Austal’s module manufacturing facility.