Navy Commissions Final Independence-Class Littoral Combat Ship as Troubled Program Winds Down

The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Pierre (LCS 38), the 19th and final Independence-variant littoral combat ship, on Friday in Panama City, Florida, marking the end of a program that has struggled to meet its original mission objectives.

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan delivered the principal address at the ceremony, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to maritime power despite the program’s troubled history. “President Trump is committed to restoring our shipbuilding capacity because he knows that to be a superpower, one must be a seapower,” Phelan said.

The commissioning comes as the Navy officially winds down the LCS program after mounting evidence that the vessels cannot reliably perform their intended missions. Originally conceived in 2002 as fast, modular ships capable of mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, and surface warfare operations in littoral zones, the LCS fleet has instead become defined by chronic mechanical failures, underperforming mission modules, and limited survivability.

Pierre is the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name and was built by Austal USA at their Mobile, Alabama shipyard as part of the aluminum trimaran Independence variant. The ship’s sponsor, Larissa Thune Hargens, daughter of South Dakota Senator John Thune, gave the crew the order to “man our ship and bring her to life.”

The LCS class consists of two variants: the Freedom-class steel monohull built by Lockheed Martin in Marinette, Wisconsin, and the Independence-class aluminum trimaran built by Austal USA. The ships were designed with modular mission packages that could be swapped to meet different operational requirements.

A total of 35 LCS have been constructed, with LCS 31 and 38 in final stages of completion. The Independence variants are homeported in San Diego with Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 1, while Freedom variants operate from Mayport, Florida with Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 2.

As the Pentagon shifts focus toward high-end conflict scenarios in the Indo-Pacific, the lightly armed LCS has proven ill-suited for operations against peer adversaries. The Navy is now retiring some hulls early and redirecting investment toward more capable Constellation-class frigates and traditional surface combatants.

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