The Navy will christen its newest littoral combat ship, the future USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) in a ceremony at the Marinette Marine Corporation shipyard in Marinette, Wis., Dec. 18 at 1:15 p.m. CST.
Sylvia Panetta, wife of former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, will serve as the ship’s sponsor. Panetta will officially christen the ship Milwaukee.
Milwaukee was named in honor of the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and will be the fifth to bear the city’s name.
Littoral combat ships are fast, agile surface combatants optimized for warfighting in the highly trafficked near-shore regions of the world against asymmetric “anti-access” threats. Through its innovative design, LCS can be reconfigured for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and mine countermeasures.
This versatility enables Navy to provide warfighters with the most capable, cost-effective solutions to gain, sustain, and exploit littoral maritime supremacy.
The launch and christening of LCS 5, and the recent launch of LCS 6 from the Austal USA shipyard together mark a milestone for the littoral combat ship program. These are the first two littoral combat ships built from start to finish using serial production processes.
Milwaukee will be 388 feet in length and equipped with four axial-flow waterjet engines, which will improve performance and move nearly half a million gallons of seawater per minute which will propel the ship to speeds in excess of 40 knots.
[mappress]
Press Release, December 17, 2013