American Security Today September Digital Magazine September 2016 | Page 70

Volume 7

September 2016 Edition
LCS 7 will be the sixth U.S. Navy ship named USS
Detroit. Previous ships to bear the name included
a Sacramento-class fast combat support ship, an
Omaha-class light cruiser, a Montgomery-class
cruiser and two 19th century sloops of war.

Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ships and Systems at
Lockheed Martin Mission System and Training

“Team Freedom is proud to deliver another capable
LCS to the Navy,” said Joe North, vice president of
Littoral Ships and Systems. “Once commissioned,
the USS Detroit will represent the interests of the
United Stateswhere and when needed, with a level
of force that will deter and defeat threats.”
The Lockheed Martin-led industry team is currently
in full-rate production of the Freedom-variant, with
six ships under construction at Fincantieri Marinette
Marine (FMM) and three more in long-lead material procurement. The ship’s modular design and
plug-and-play architecture enables the U.S. Navy
to achieve increased capacity and capability at a
fraction of the cost of other platforms.
“We are proud to deliver another proven warship that
allows our Navy to carry out its missions around the
world,” said Jan Allman, FMM president and CEO.
“We look forward to working with the U.S. Navy to
continue building these highly capable ships for the
fleet.”

The Lockheed Martin-led LCS team is comprised of
shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine, naval architect Gibbs & Cox, and more than 500 suppliers
in 37 states. The Freedom-variant’s steel monohull
is based on a proven, survivable design recognized
for its stability and reliability. With 40 percent reconfigurable shipboard space, the hull is ideally suited
to accommodate additional lethality and survivability upgrades associated with the Freedom-variant
Frigate.
Founded in 1942, The Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM) is located on the Menominee River
flowage into Green Bay. The largest shipyard in the
Midwest, FMM has delivered more than 1,300 vessels to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and commercial customers, including the technologically
advanced Littoral Combat Ship Freedom variant for
the U.S. Navy.

(Learn More, courtesy of Gibbs & Cox Inc. and YouTube)

(Detroit Tigers legend Willie Horton introduces LCS 7, the future USS Detroit, and describes the revitalization of its namesake city. Courtesy of Tim Weston and YouTube)

Gibbs & Cox, the nation’s leading independent maritime solutions firm specializing in naval architecture, marine engineering and design, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The company, founded
in 1929, has provided designs for nearly 80 percent
of the current U.S. Navy surface combatant fleet;
approaching 7,000 naval and commercial ships
have been built to Gibbs & Cox designs.