Navy Receives Last Independence-Class Warship: A New Era of Combat Readiness

On Friday, Austal USA completed the delivery of the last ship in the Independence-class series of littoral combat ships to the U.S. Navy, concluding a production era that spanned 15 years.

Operating out of Alabama, Austal USA constructed a total of 19 Independence-class littoral combat ships for the Navy. The inaugural ship, named Independence, was commissioned in 2010, and the series concluded with the delivery of a ship named the Pierre, after South Dakota’s capital city.

“The handover of the forthcoming USS Pierre is a significant landmark for us as it signifies the wrap-up of the Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship program at Austal USA,” stated Austal USA’s President Michelle Kruger in a press statement. “While the USS Pierre is the last LCS we are delivering, our dedication to providing the U.S. Navy with top-tier maritime solutions and maintaining the highest quality standards remains steadfast.”

In an era where the Navy is urgently seeking to enhance its shipbuilding projects and ensure timely delivery of ships, the commissioning of the Pierre stands as a potentially uplifting achievement.

Yet, as a member of the LCS category, this ship could be burdened by an inheritance of ongoing issues. According to reports by Navy Times, the littoral combat ship initiative has been plagued by persistent repair and production challenges, alongside elevated operational costs.

The LCS was engineered to swiftly address asymmetrical threats such as mines and swift surface crafts, and is ideally suited for tasks like special operations support and interdiction missions.

There are two versions of the LCS: the Freedom class and the Independence class, with the latter featuring a trimaran structure designed to house two MH-60 helicopters in its hangar bay.

Both LCS classes have encountered issues such as hull fractures and propulsion system failures. In some instances, parts from other vessels have been repurposed to fix these defects, leading to expensive repair operations.

An analysis by the Government Accountability Office in 2021, which reviewed 18 LCS maintenance orders from 2018 to 2020, found that unforeseen repairs often increased the risk of delayed maintenance completions, requiring the Navy to contract additional work.

The GAO report also noted that, at times, contractors had to be sent overseas for routine maintenance, incurring travel expenses that ranged from a few thousand to over a million dollars, all billed to the government.

Reports as early as 2019 from the Congressional Research Service have raised doubts about the combat effectiveness of these ships. The LCS program has faced scrutiny over the years for issues such as cost overruns, design and construction shortcomings in the early ships, concerns about their battle survivability, questions about their armament adequacy, and doubts about their ability to effectively execute their designated missions. Additionally, the development and testing of their modular mission packages have been a contentious issue.

Despite the delivery of the new Independence-class LCS adding another vessel to the Navy’s fleet, the future viability of the LCS class as a whole continues to be uncertain.