TSAMTO, October 5. The command of the US Navy announced the ceremony of the decommissioning of the lead ship of the coastal zone LCS-1 "fReedom", which took place at the San Diego Naval Base.
Due to the limitations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of participants in the event was limited.
The ship was built at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Company in Marinette (pc.Wisconsin). The keel was laid on June 2, 2005, and launched on September 23, 2006. LCS-1 was transferred to the US Navy in September 2008 and entered service on November 8, 2008. Thus, the service life of the ship was only 13 years.
fReedom was considered as a test platform and a training ship and was used to develop the concept of operation and combat use of this series, training personnel and testing new equipment.
As reported by TSAMTO, coastal warships were conceived by the command of the US Navy as one of the main elements of countering asymmetric threats in the XXI century. They are capable of operating on the high seas, but are adapted to perform combat missions in the coastal zone. Among the main functions of the ships are: patrolling, protecting the fleet from attacks by small surface vessels, fighting low-noise enemy submarines, mine warfare, conducting reconnaissance, supporting the actions of special operations forces.
The construction of LCS ships is carried out by two main contractors, Lockheed Martin and Austal USA, on alternative projects. The fReedom-class ships under construction by Lockheed Martin are a steel single-hull vessel 115.3 m long. The iNdependence-class ships (Austal USA) are aluminum trimarans 127.8 m long.
In 2020, the US Navy Command decided to withdraw the first four LCS ships built from the fleet: LCS-1 fReedom, LCS-2 iNdependence, LCS-3 Fort Worth and LCS-4 Coronado. According to the command commentary, ships of this class have become less important in the rivalry of the great powers. For this reason, the funds necessary for the modernization of these vessels are planned to be directed to more relevant projects. According to estimates, the LCS ships used as experimental vessels required repairs and modernization at a total cost of about $2.5 billion.
The ceremony of decommissioning the LCS-2 iNdependence, which is the lead vessel of this variant, took place at the San Diego Naval Base on July 29, 2021.
The draft US defense budget for 2022 provides for the withdrawal from the fleet, in addition to these, two more LCS ships: (LCS-7) "Detroit" and (LCS-9) "Little Rock".
After the removal of fReedom from service, 21 LCS ships remained in the US Navy's combat strength.
