and Independence). Even though the plans related to trima-
ran hulls would be completed, the mono-hull ships were orde-
red in a smaller quantity of 16 examples. The conclusion of an
agreement on the delivery of four frigates based on the Free-
dom class for Saudi Arabia is a consolation prize for the Lock-
heed Martin/Fincantieri Marinette Marine consortium (the shi-
pyard building these ships is located in Marinette, Wisconsin). So
far, this has been the sole export success for the LCS vessels.
The withdrawal of the Freedom-class vessel began on Septem-
ber 29th, 2021, when the USS Freedom (LCS 1) prototype was
decommissioned. However, this was not a surprise, as the war-
ship remained in service since November 2008, and for most
of that period, it was treated as a prototype, experimental, and
training vessel.
The events described here had their start on August 14th, when
USS Sioux City (LCS 11) was decommissioned in Mayport, Flo-
rida. USS Milwaukee (LCS 5, September 8th), USS Detroit (LCS
7), and USS Little Rock (LCS 9) all shared identical fates during
the upcoming weeks. In the case of the latter two vessels, the
decommissioning took place on September 29th. All four vessels
were based in Mayport, Florida, and they had been commissio-
ned between 2015 and 2018.
The vessels were relatively new, and each came at a price tag of
USD 400M. They were representing one of the two US Navy's
multi-role littoral vessel classes. The initial assumption was that
the US Department of Defense would procure 52 of these. Later
on, that number was reduced to 40, and then it was ultimately
brought down to 38 vessels of two classes (19 each - Freedom
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