USS ''Kansas City'' (LCS-22) 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 ...

. She is the third ship to be named for

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

, the largest city in the U.S. state of

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

Design

In 2002, the

initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships. The Navy initially ordered two

trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...

hulled ships from

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

, 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 image:monohull.svg, right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull (watercraft), hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple ...

. 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

''Kansas City'' was built in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

by Austal USA. The ship was christened on 22 September 2018 in

, and sponsored by Tracy Davidson, wife of Admiral

Philip S. Davidson Philip Scot Davidson (born August 24, 1960) is a retired four-star admiral in the United States Navy who last served as the 25th commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command from May 30, 2018 to April 30, 2021. He previously served as the comm ...

. She was launched 19 October 2018 into the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

. ''Kansas City'' was commissioned on 20 June 2020 and she has been assigned to

Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One Naval Base San Diego, also known as 32nd Street Naval Station, is the second largest surface ship base of the United States Navy and is located in San Diego, California. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the Pacific Fleet, cons ...

References

* Independence-class littoral combat ships 2018 ships {{US-mil-ship-stub