USS ''Gabrielle Giffords'' (LCS-10) is an of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
The ship is named after former
United States Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
Gabby Giffords
Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned ...
, who was shot along with eighteen other people during
a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona.
The ship's name was announced by then-
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
Ray Mabus
Raymond Edwin Mabus Jr. (; born October 11, 1948) is an American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2017. Mabus previously served as the State Auditor ...
on 10 February 2012.
''Gabrielle Giffords'' is the 16th U.S. naval ship to be
named for a woman by the United States Navy, and the 13th U.S. naval ship since 1850 to be
named after a living person.
Construction on ''Gabrielle Giffords'' began with her keel laying on 16 April 2014, at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama.
Rep. Giffords, still recovering from injuries sustained in the 2011 assassination attempt, attended the ship's keel-laying ceremony,
and with the assistance of an Austal welder, welded her initials into a plate that would become part of the ship's hull.
''Gabrielle Giffords'' was launched, and then moved from her construction facility to drydock, on 26 February 2015. The ship was christened in a ceremony held at the Austal USA shipyard on 13 June 2015,
and
Second Lady of the United States
The second gentleman or second lady of the United States (SGOTUS or SLOTUS respectively) is the informal title held by the spouse of the vice president of the United States, concurrent with the vice president's term of office. Coined in contrast ...
Jill Biden
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her hus ...
served as ship sponsor at the christening.
The ship was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 23 December 2016,
[ and commissioned the following spring on 10 June 2017, in Galveston, Texas.]
Background
In 2002, the U.S. Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ship
The littoral combat ship (LCS) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeat ...
s. The Navy initially ordered two trimaran hulled ships from General Dynamics, which became known as the ''Independence''-class littoral combat ships after the first ship of the class, USS ''Independence''. Even-numbered U.S. Navy littoral combat ships are built using the ''Independence''-class trimaran design, while odd-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the conventional hull . The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the ''Independence''-class design.
On 29 December 2010, the Navy announced that it was awarding Austal USA a contract to build ten additional ''Independence''-class littoral combat ships. On 10 February 2012, Naval Secretary Ray Mabus announced that LCS-10, the fifth ''Independence''-class ship to be built, would be named USS ''Gabrielle Giffords''. Secretary Mabus also announced that the ship's sponsor would be Roxanna Green, the mother of Christina-Taylor Green, age 9, who was killed in the Tucson shooting that wounded Giffords in January 2011.
Naming
During the ship's naming announcement on 10 February 2012, Secretary Mabus said that the Navy had chosen to name the ship ''Gabrielle Giffords'' because Rep. Giffords' name had become "synonymous with courage" and that the congresswoman had "inspired the nation with remarkable resiliency." The secretary also called the naming a tribute to Navy families, stating that Giffords was a "Navy spouse" who made efforts to support the Navy during her time in Congress. Giffords is married to Captain Mark Kelly (Ret.), a former naval aviator and astronaut.
The media reported that some former military members, including retired U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps officers, were criticizing the decision to name the ship after Giffords as part of a perceived trend toward naming ships for political reasons. Some commentators, including retired Commander Darlene Iskra
Darlene Marie Iskra (born 1952) is a retired United States Navy officer. Upon assuming command of the rescue and salvage ship on December 27, 1990, she became the first woman to command a U.S. Navy vessel. She continued to serve on Guam as a liai ...
, the first woman to command a U.S. Navy vessel, and Robert Farley, professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Patterson may refer to:
People
* Patterson (surname)
Places
;Canada
*Pattersons Corners, Ontario
*Patterson Township, Ontario
*Patterson, Calgary a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta.
;United States of America
* Patterson, Arkansas
*Patterson, Ca ...
and military affairs scholar, noted in response that several ships in the US Navy, including , , , , , and were named for prominent politicians who were still alive at the time of the naming. Commander Iskra also wrote in a ''Time'' magazine editorial that the still-active ''Carl Vinson'' was named for a congressman responsible for barring women from combat roles in the Navy for nearly 50 years.
In connection with the controversy, United States Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
Roy Blunt
Roy Dean Blunt (born January 10, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator for Missouri, a seat he was first elected to in 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd Missouri Secr ...
added an amendment to the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the name for each of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress o ...
which required the Navy to report to Congress on how effectively it was adhering to established naming conventions. The resulting report highlighted a consistent record of making "occasional exceptions" to established ship-naming conventions, beginning in 1798 when Secretary Benjamin Stoddert
Benjamin Stoddert (1751 – 18 December 1813) was the first United States Secretary of the Navy from 1 May 1798 to 31 March 1801.
Early life and education
Stoddert was born in Charles County, Maryland in 1751, the son of Captain Thomas Stoddert. ...
broke with naming convention by naming one of the original six frigates of the United States Navy
The United States Congress authorized the original six frigates of the United States Navy with the Naval Act of 1794 on March 27, 1794, at a total cost of $688,888.82 (). These ships were built during the formative years of the United States Nav ...
as . The report also noted that while Secretary Mabus considered honoring Giffords and other victims of the Tucson shooting by naming LCS-10 after the Arizonan city of Tucson, consistent with current naming conventions for littoral combat ships to honor U.S. cities, this was not possible because , an active , currently bears the name.
After the ship's 2015 christening, military-focused newspaper '' Stars and Stripes'' said that criticism of the ship's naming had become "muted", possibly due to recognition that the ship's naming was "by no means unprecedented."
Design
In 2002, the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ship
The littoral combat ship (LCS) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeat ...
s. The Navy initially ordered two trimaran hulled ships from General Dynamics, which became known as the after the first ship of the class, . Even-numbered U.S. Navy littoral combat ships are built using the ''Independence''-class trimaran design, while odd-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the conventional monohull
right
A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another.
Fundamental concept
Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unst ...
. The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the ''Independence''-class design. On 29 December 2010, the Navy announced that it was awarding Austal USA a contract to build ten additional ''Independence''-class littoral combat ships.
Construction and career
After commissioning, ''Gabrielle Giffords'' conducted qualification trials on her official maiden voyage from Texas to her home port of San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...
via the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...
, arriving at Naval Base San Diego on 5 July 2017. She has been assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One.
During summer 2019 the ship was equipped with MQ-8C Fire Scout drones and Naval Strike Missile
The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is an anti-ship and land-attack missile developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA).
The original Norwegian name was Nytt sjømålsmissil (literally ''New sea target missile'', indicatin ...
s and from September deployed in an offensive role in the seas off China. She returned to San Diego in January 2021.
As of June 2021 the ship is moored in Seattle Washington.
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10)
2015 ships
USS G
Independence-class littoral combat ships