Austal Launches Final LCS

Mobile’s Austal USA has launched future USS Pierre (LCS 38), the last ship of the U.S. Navy’s Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program. Now, the company’s test and activation team will spend the next several months preparing her for sea trials later this year. This is the 23rd LCS launched at Austal using the modern multistep method of rolling the ship onto a moored deck barge and then transferring it from the barge to a floating dry dock. Pierre, christened in May, is the Navy’s 19th and final Independence-variant LCS and will be deployed to the Pacific fleet area of responsibility supporting forward presence, maritime security, sea control and deterrence. She is the second U.S. Navy ship launched at Austal USA this year.