Scott Nicholas
Austal‘s U.S. subsidiary will host a christening ceremony Saturday for the U.S. Navy‘s future Independence-variant littoral combat ship at the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.
The USS Tulsa, designated LCS 16, is the second Navy ship that honors the same-named city in Oklahoma and built to support the service branch’s near-shore environment and open-ocean operations.
Tulsa is designed to eliminate asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.
Sean Stackley, acting secretary of the Navy, said the christening of the future Tulsa ship will serve as a tribute to the work performed by the country’s shipbuilders.
Austal USA leads the work on the Independence variant of the Navy’s LCS class while Lockheed Martin heads the team working on the Freedom variant.
DoD noted the LCS seaframes are outfitted with a single mission package composed of mission modules that contain warfighting systems and support equipment.
