The nation’s first Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), arrived in its homeport of San Diego on Friday, April 23, marking the end of her maiden deployment.
Freedom departed Mayport, Fla., in February for operations in the U.S. 4th Fleet and U.S. 3rd Fleet areas of responsibility. Throughout the deployment, the ship conducted counter-illicit trafficking operations, making four successful interdictions in which more than five tons of cocaine and two “go fast” drug vessels were seized, and nine suspected smugglers were taken into custody.
Freedom also performed integrated at-sea operations with the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group. The successful operations confirmed USS Freedom’s ability to seamlessly integrate into strike group operations.
Additionally, during the deployment, Freedom completed theater security cooperation port visits to Cartagena, Colombia; Panama City, Panama; and Manzanillo, Mexico.
View an interactive map of Freedom’s maiden deployment
“Freedom completed all operational tasking in superb fashion, its inherent design capabilities of sprint speed, shallow draft and modularity were key enablers in accomplishing the counter-illicit trafficking mission,” said Rear Adm. Vic Guillory, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet in a recent Navy press release. “Every Sailor on the ship should be proud of what they’ve accomplished – they helped move our 21st century Navy forward.”
LCS 1 is the first of 55 the Navy plans for a new class of ships designed to operate in coastal waters. Her capabilities have been demonstrated since the ship was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2008. She has successfully completed sea trials, helicopter landings and certification, ship handling/refueling, weapons firings and certifications, combat system and exterior/interior communications, small boat launch and recovery and Surface Warfare mission-package testing.
To view video footage from today’s arrival in San Diego, click here.
