Independence-class littoral combat ship

*Independence-class littoral combat ship*
	USS Gabrielle Giffords in the; Philippine Sea, October 2019
Class overview
Name	Independence class
Builders	Austal USA
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	N/A
Succeeded by	Constellation class
Cost	$360 million
Built	2008–present
In commission	2010–present
Planned	19
Building	2
Completed	17
Active	15
Retired	2
General characteristics
Type	Littoral combat ship
Displacement	2,543 tons light, 3,422 tons full
Length	418 ft (127 m)
Beam	104 ft (32 m)
Draft	14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power	CODOG system ; 2 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines; 2 × MTU Friedrichshafen 20V 8000 Series diesel engines; 4 × diesel generators;
Propulsion	2 × American Vulkan light weight multiple-section carbon fiber propulsion shaftlines; 4 × Wärtsilä waterjets; 2 × LJ150E; 2 × LJ160E; 2 × retractable bow-mounted azimuth thrusters;
Speed	44 knots (51 mph; 81 km/h)
Range	4,300 nautical miles (7,964 km) at 18 knots (33 km/h)
Capacity	210 metric tons (206 long tons, 231 short tons)
Complement	40 core crew (8 officers, 32 enlisted) plus up to 35 mission crew
Sensors and ; processing systems	SAAB AN/SPS-77(V)1 Sea GIRAFFE 3D air and surface search radar; Sperry Marine BridgeMaster E navigational radar; AN/KAX-2 electro-optical sensor with TV and FLIR; Northrop Grumman ICMS (Integrated Combat Management System);
Electronic warfare ; & decoys	ITT Corporation ES-3601 ESM system; 4 × SRBOC decoy launchers for chaff and infrared decoys; BAE Systems Nulka active radar decoy system;
Armament	1 × BAE Systems Mk 110 57 mm gun; 1 × Raytheon SeaRAM CIWS; 4 × .50-cal guns (2 aft, 2 forward); 2 × 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II guns (part of SUW module); 8 × RGM-184A Naval Strike Missiles; 24 × AGM-114L Hellfire missiles (SUW vertical launch module); Other weapons as part of mission modules;
Aircraft carried	1 × MH-60R/S Seahawk; 2 × MQ-8B Fire Scouts or 1 × MQ-8C Fire Scout;

The Independence class is a class of littoral combat ships built for the United States Navy.

The hull design evolved from a project at Austal to design a high speed, 40-knot-cruise ship. That hull design evolved into the high-speed trimaran ferry HSC Benchijigua Express and the Independence class was then proposed by General Dynamics and Austal as a contender for Navy plans to build a fleet of smaller, agile, multipurpose warships to operate nearshore in the littoral zone. Initially two ships were approved, to compete with Lockheed Martin's Freedom-class design.

Despite initial plans to only build ships of the winner out of the two competing Independence or Freedom classes, in 2010 the Navy announced plans to order up to ten additional ships of each class, for a total 12 ships per class. In March 2016 the Navy announced their intention to order an additional two ships, increasing the order to 13 ships of each class.

It was announced in early September 2016 that the first four vessels of the LCS program would be used as test ships rather than being deployed with the fleet. This includes lead ship Independence and Coronado. As of May 2019, nine ships have been commissioned. In February 2020 it was announced that the Navy plans to retire the first four LCS ships. On 20 June 2020, the US Navy announced that all four would be taken out of commission in March 2021, and will be placed in inactive reserve, because it would be too expensive to upgrade them to match the later ships in the class.

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