USS ''Marinette'' (LCS-25) will be a littoral combat ship 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 will be the first commissioned ship, and second overall in naval service to be named after

Marinette, Wisconsin Marinette is a city in and the county seat of Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the south bank of the Menominee River, at its mouth at Green Bay, part of Lake Michigan; to the north is Stephenson Island, part of the ...

(the place where it was built), the other being , a large fleet

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

Design

In 2002, the US Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships. The Navy initially ordered two monohull ships from

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

, which became known as the ''Freedom''-class littoral combat ships after the first ship of the class, . Odd-numbered US Navy littoral combat ships are built using the ''Freedom''-class monohull design, while even-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the

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 ...

hull 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 ...

. The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the ''Freedom''-class design. ''Marinette'' is the thirteenth ''Freedom''-class littoral combat ship to be built.

Construction and career

Marinette Marine Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) is an American shipbuilding firm in Marinette, Wisconsin. Marinette Marine was a subsidiary of Manitowoc Marine Group of Wisconsin from 2000 to 2009, when it was sold to Fincantieri Marine Group. History M ...

was awarded the contract to build the ship on 31 March 2016 and built at their shipyard in

. The ship was launched on 31 October 2020, subsequently she was christened on 20 November 2021.

References

* Freedom-class littoral combat ships Lockheed Martin 2020 ships {{US-mil-ship-stub