The future USS Indianapolis, designated LCS-17, honors
Indianapolis, Indiana's state capital. She will be the fourth ship to bear the
name.
The principal speaker will be former U.S. Senator Richard
Lugar of Indiana. Mrs. Jill Donnelly, wife of U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly of
Indiana, will serve as the ship's sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition,
she will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the
bow.
MARINETTE, Wisc. (March 30, 2018) The
future littoral combat ship USS Indianapolis (LCS 17) is moved from an indoor
production facility in Marinette, Wisc., to launchways in preparation for its
upcoming launch into the Menomenee River.
(U.S. Navy photo courtesy of
Marinette Marine by Val Ihde/Released)
"The future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city,
it pays tribute to the legacy of those who served during the final days of
World War II on board USS Indianapolis (CA-35)," said Secretary of the
Navy Richard V. Spencer. "This ship will continue the proud legacy of
service embodied in the name Indianapolis, and is a testament to the true
partnership between the Navy and industry."
LCS-17 is the fourth ship to carry the name of Indiana's
capital city. The most recent Indianapolis was a Los Angeles-class fast-attack
submarine, commissioned Jan. 5, 1980, which served through the end of the Cold
War before being decommissioned in 1998. The first Indianapolis was a steamer
built for the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) and commissioned directly into the
Navy in 1918. After two runs to Europe, the ship was returned to the USSB
following the war. It is the second Indianapolis (CA 35)-a cruiser-that is
perhaps the best known of the three.
The ship was sunk in the final days of
World War II, and her crew spent several days in the water awaiting rescue. But
it was her impressive war record that first brought the ship to the attention
of Navy leaders and the American public. The ship and her crew served
faithfully throughout the war, seeing action in the Aleutians, the Gilbert
Islands, Saipan, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In
addition to frequently serving as the flagship of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, the
ship earned 10 battle stars for World War II service and successfully completed
a top secret mission delivering components of the instrument that ended the
war.
The future USS Indianapolis is a fast, agile,
focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet
capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric
"anti-access" threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast
surface craft.
LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, designed to meet
validated fleet requirements for surface warfare (SUW), anti-submarine warfare
(ASW) and mine countermeasures (MCM) missions in the littoral region. An
interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the
primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open
architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned
and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime supremacy,
LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical areas in multiple theaters.
The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant
and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The
Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin (for the odd-numbered hulls).
The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA (for LCS 6 and the
subsequent even-numbered hulls).
Story Number: NNS180412-15 Release Date: 4/12/2018 2:40:00
PM
SOURCE: U.S. Navy
