GC-built LCS deploying to Asia

The Navy’s first aluminum trimaran Littoral Combat Ship, built on the Gulf Coast at Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., will take its maiden deployment six years after the first LCS was commissioned. USS Coronado (LCS 4) departed San Diego on June 22 bound for the Rim of the Pacific exercises in Hawaii before heading to the Asia region. At RIMPAC, the ship will fire an LCS-first shoot of a Harpoon missile - more typical of bigger combatants. “It's time to demonstrate the full potential of these ships to the fleet,” said Cmdr. Scott Larson, commanding officer of one of the ship’s interchangeable crews. The lead ship of the aluminum trimaran line –USS Independence (LCS 2) also based in San Diego - spent a great deal of time as a test platform for mine countermeasures warfare equipment development for LCS. (Source: San Diego Union-Tribune 06/21/16)