Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., christened the future USS Kingsville (LCS 36) Independence-variant littoral combat ship in a ceremony at the company’s Gulf Coast shipyard on Saturday.
The 421'6"x103.7' LCS is the most recent step in the small surface combatant evolution. A high-speed, agile, shallow draft, focused-mission surface combatant, the LCS is designed to conduct surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and mine countermeasures missions in the littoral near-shore region, while also possessing the capability for deep-water operations. With its open-architecture design, the LCS can support modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles.
Each aluminum trimaran LCS has a displacement of 3,200 MT, a 15.1' draft, and is powered by a pair of 12,200-hp MTU 20V8000 diesel engines and two 29,500-hp GE LM2500 gas turbines.
The Kingsville is planned for delivery in early 2024 and will be homeported in San Diego, where Austal USA can drydock and provide lifecycle sustainment support for the Independence-variant ship class and other similar sized ships at its waterfront repair facility.
The Kingsville is the 18th LCS designed and constructed by Austal USA.
LCS 36 is the first Navy ship named for Kingsville. The town, born from the need for an efficient railroad service connecting Brownsville, Texas, to St. Louis, was founded in 1904.
