The Navy’s fourth Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Coronado (LCS-4), has completed acceptance trials and is readying for delivery, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) said Friday.
The Coronado will be second ship of the LCS Independence variant, which features a trimaran hull and is largely constructed of aluminum.
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| The Coronado during Christening. Photo by Austal USA. |
The ships are designed for close-to-shore operations and countering asymmetric threats, and to operate three separate and swappable mission modules for anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, and mine countermeasures.
The details of the acceptance trials and a delivery timeframe were not available as of press time. The Coronado was scheduled to deliver earlier this year. During builder’s trials in April, the ship suffered from a minor fire on the exhaust insulation of a diesel engine.
The LCS program remains under intense scrutiny, in part because of early cost overruns and delays. Congress has continued to raise questions about the survivability of the ship and the Navy’s insistence on building two variants.
The Navy’s program of record calls for 51 Littoral Combat Ships.
General Dynamics [GD] and Austal USA are building the first two Independence variants. Austal is the prime for the follow-on ships.