US Navy Names Newest Littoral Combat Ship USS Fort Worth

Focus on Defense:

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2009 -- Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced Friday that the newest littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Fort Worth.

The announcement continues the practice of naming the agile LCS vessels after American mid-sized cities, small towns and communities. For more than 150 years, the patriotic citizens of Fort Worth have supported the Navy and all of our men and women in uniform. Home to ranger outposts, training facilities, aviation depots, and defense manufacturing, Fort Worth has answered the call whenever our nation needed it.

Designated LCS 3, the future USS Fort Worth is designed to defeat growing littoral threats and provide access and dominance in coastal waters for missions such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare.

There are two different LCS hull forms -- a semiplaning monohull and an aluminum trimaran -- designed and built by two industry teams, respectively led by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. These seaframes will be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called mission packages, which can be changed out quickly. Mission packages are supported by special detachments that will deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors.

USS Fort Worth will be 378 feet in length, have a waterline beam of 57 feet, displace approximately 3000 tons, and will make speed in excess of 40 knots.

(From a U.S. Defense Department press release.)

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