MARINETTE, Wis. - The U.S. Navy held a keel laying and authentication ceremony for the future USS St. Louis (LCS 19) in Marinette, Wisconsin, May 17.
The initials of the ship’s sponsor, Barbara Taylor, were welded onto a keel plate that will be permanently affixed to the ship.
“St. Louis has a strong bond with the Navy. This LCS will be the seventh ship to bear the city’s name and will reaffirm that bond,” said Capt. Tom Anderson, LCS program manager. “We are honored to lay the keel of a ship which will protect our freedom and keep us safe as our Sailors operate her on the world’s seas.”
While the keel laying has traditionally represented the formal start of a ship's construction, advanced modular shipbuilding allows fabrication of the ship to begin months in advance. Today, the keel laying continues to symbolically recognize the joining of the ship's components and the ceremonial beginning of the ship.
The ship is being built by an industry team led by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corporation in Marinette, Wis. The future USS St. Louis will be approximately 388 feet in length and have a width of nearly 58 feet.
The LCS class, designed and built by two industry teams, consists of the Freedom variant, led by Lockheed Martin, and the Independence variant, led by Austal USA (for LCS 6 and follow-on even-numbered hulls). Thirteen ships are under construction, purchased as part of the Navy's block-buy acquisition strategy.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship with three types of mission packages (MP). Each MP provides unique warfighting capabilities for one of three focused mission areas: Surface Warfare, Mine Countermeasures and Anti-Submarine Warfare.
Program Executive Office Littoral Combat Ships is responsible for delivering and sustaining littoral mission capabilities to the fleet.
- NAVSEA -