USS ''Jackson'' (LCS-6) 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 ...

, and the first ship to be named for

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

, the capital of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Design

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 monohull . 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. ''Jackson'' is the third ''Independence''-class littoral combat ship to be built. ''Jackson'' was built by

Austal USA Austal USA is an American shipbuilder based on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama. It is a subsidiary of the Australian shipbuilder Austal, operating under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently and separately on ...

in Mobile, Alabama. ''Jackson'' is the second ''Independence''-class ship to carry standard long

rigid-hulled inflatable boat A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...

s and improvements in corrosion protection and propulsion over the original ''Independence'' (LCS-2) design.

History

Construction of ''Jackson'' began on 1 August 2011 with the first cutting of aluminum at

's Modular Manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. The name of the ship was announced on 5 October 2011. The ship was launched on 14 December 2013. ''Jackson'' was delivered to the Navy on 11 August 2015 and placed into service that day. The ship was commissioned in a 5 December 2015 ceremony at

Gulfport, Mississippi Gulfport is the second-largest city in Mississippi after the state capital, Jackson. Along with Biloxi, Gulfport is the co-county seat of Harrison County and the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolit ...

. She has been assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One ''Jackson'' underwent the first of three shock trials in waters off

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

on 16 June 2016, and the last being reported having been completed the week prior to 20 July 2016. A charge of was set off at around with the ship wired with around 260 instruments to record the effects.LCS Survives First Shock Test, Preps For More
Christopher P. Cavas, Defense News, 17 June 2016, accessed 20 June 2016 On 23 May 2022, ''Jackson'' participated in the 28th Annual CARAT exercise with the

Royal Thai Navy The Royal Thai Navy ( Abrv: RTN, ทร.; th, กองทัพเรือไทย, ) is the naval warfare force of Thailand. Established in 1906, it was modernised by the Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartiwongse (1880–1923) who is known a ...

as a part of the Combined Task Force (CTF) 72. ''Jackson'' is attached to DESRON 7 and the US 7th Fleet. The MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter was recently deployed on the ship. ''Jackson'' is scheduled to be decommissioned sometime in 2024.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson Independence-class littoral combat ships 2013 ships