Freedom-class littoral combat ship

*Freedom* class
	Freedom, showing a camouflage scheme, on sea trials in February 2013
Class overview
Builders	Marinette Marine
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	N/A
Succeeded by	Constellation class
Cost	$362 million
Built	2005–present
In commission	2008–present
Planned	16
Building	3
Completed	13
Active	8
Retired	5
General characteristics
Type	Littoral combat ship
Displacement	3,500 metric tons (3,900 short tons) (full load)
Length	378 ft (115 m)
Beam	57.4 ft (17.5 m)
Draft	12.8 ft (3.9 m)
Installed power	Electrical: 4 Isotta Fraschini V1708 diesel engines, Hitzinger generator units, 800 kW each
Propulsion	2 × Rolls-Royce MT30 36 MW (48,000 hp) gas turbines; 2 × Colt-Pielstick 16PA6B 6.8 MW (9,100 hp) diesel engines; 4 Rolls-Royce/Kamewa 153SII/153BII waterjets;
Speed	47 knots (87 km/h; 54 mph) (sea state 3)
Range	3,500 nmi (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Endurance	21 days (336 hours)
Boats & landing ; craft carried	11 m (36 ft) RHIB, 12 m (39 ft) high-speed boats
Complement	50 core crew, 65 with mission crew (Blue and Gold crews).
Sensors and ; processing systems	EADS North America TRS-3D air and surface search radar, TRS-4D from LCS 17; Lockheed Martin COMBATSS-21 combat management system; AN/SQR-20 Multi-Function Towed Array (As part of ASW mission module);
Electronic warfare ; & decoys	Argon ST WBR-2000 ESM system; Terma A/S SKWS decoy system;
Armament	1 × BAE Systems Mk 110 57 mm gun, 400 rounds in turret and two ready service magazines with 240 rounds each.; 1 × Mk 49 launcher with 21 × RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Surface-to-Air Missiles; 4 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns; 2 × 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II guns (part of SUW module); 24 × AGM-114L Hellfire missiles (planned part of SUW module); 1 × Lockheed Martin 150 kW High Energy Laser; Other weapons as part of mission-specific modules;
Aircraft carried	1 × MH-60R/S Seahawk; 2 × MQ-8B Fire Scouts or 1 × MQ-8C Fire Scout;

The Freedom class is one of two classes of the littoral combat ship program, built for the United States Navy.

The Freedom class was proposed by a consortium formed by Lockheed Martin as "prime contractor" and by Fincantieri (project) through the subsidiary Marinette Marine (manufacturer) as a contender for a fleet of small, multipurpose warships to operate in the littoral zone. Two ships were approved, to compete with the Independence-class design offered by General Dynamics and Austal for a construction contract of up to fifty-five vessels.

Despite plans in 2004 to only accept two each of the Freedom and Independence variants, in December 2010 the U.S. Navy announced plans to order up to ten additional ships of each class, for a total of twelve ships per class.

In early September 2016, the U.S. Navy announced that the first four vessels of the LCS program, the Freedom class ships Freedom and Fort Worth and two Independence class, would be used as test ships and would not be deployed with the fleet. In February 2020, the Navy announced that it plans to retire those same four ships. On 20 June 2020, the US Navy announced that all four would be taken out of commission in March 2021 and placed in inactive reserve.

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