According to a tweet published by Chris Cavas on May 9, 2022, the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship USS Beloit was launched at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Wisconsin.
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Freedom-class LCS USS Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. (Picture source: Twitter account of Chris Cavas)
USS Beloit (LCS-29) will be a Freedom-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. She was christened and launched on 7 May 2022 at the shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin.
The littoral combat ship (LCS) is a set of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals." Littoral combat ships are comparable to corvettes found in other navies.
The ship is a semi-planing steel monohull with an aluminum superstructure. It is 377 ft (115 m) in length, displaces 3,500 metric tons (3,400 long tons), and can achieve 47 knots (87 km/h; 54 mph).
The design incorporates a large, reconfigurable sea frame to allow rapidly interchangeable mission modules, a flight deck with an integrated helicopter launch, recovery, and handling system, and the capability to launch and recover boats (manned and unmanned) from both the stern and side.
The Freedom-class LCS is armed with one BAE Systems Mk 110 57 mm naval gun with 400 rounds in the turret and two ready service magazines with 240 rounds each, one Mk 49 launcher with 21 RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Surface-to-Air Missiles, four .50 in (12.7 mm) heavy machine guns, two 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II automatic cannons, eight RGM-184A Naval Strike Missiles, 24 AGM-114L Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and one Lockheed Martin 150 kW High Energy Laser.
