USS ''St. Louis'' (LCS-19) is a littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. She is the seventh ship in naval service named after St. Louis, Missouri.

Design

In 2002, the US Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of

littoral combat ships 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 defea ...

. 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 U.S. 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. ''St. Louis'' is the tenth ''Freedom''-class littoral combat ship to be built.

Construction and career

''St. Louis'' was built in Marinette, Wisconsin by

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 ...

. The ship was christened and launched on 15 December 2018. She was commissioned on 8 August 2020 and is assigned to

Littoral Combat Ship Squadron Two Naval Station Mayport is a major United States Navy base in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a protected harbor that can accommodate aircraft carrier-size vessels, ship's intermediate maintenance activity (SIMA) and a military airfield (A ...

References

* Freedom-class littoral combat ships Lockheed Martin 2018 ships {{US-mil-ship-stub