The future Littoral Combat Ship USS Tulsa (LCS-16) completed acceptance trials on March 9 in the Gulf of Mexico, the Navy said on Friday.
Acceptance trials are the final major milestone before a ship is delivered to the Navy. The trails are conducted in-port and while underway to demonstrate capabilities to the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).
The Tulsa, and Independence-class LCS is built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.
The trials tested the performance of the propulsion plant, ship handling abilities, and auxiliary systems. The ship successfully demonstrated its bow thruster, twin boom extensible crane operations with a rigid-hull inflatable boat, surface and air-defense detect-to-engage exercises, and ship handling and maneuverability.
“The performance of the ship demonstrated incorporation of lessons learned and continual ship-over-ship improvements which will ultimately result in decreased cost to the Navy,” Capt. Mike Taylor, LCS program manager, said in a statement.
The Tulsa will only be commissioned following delivery, an industrial post-delivery availability, and a post-delivery availability to be used for crew training, certifications, and familiarization exercises in Mobile.
LCS-16 will eventually be homeported in San Diego along with its fellow Independence-class ships.
Separately, the future USS Manchester (LCS-14) was delivered in February and is set to be commissioned in late May in Manchester, N.H.
Austal USA in Mobile is currently building the future Charleston (LCS-18), Cincinnati (LCS-20), Kansas City (LCS-22), Oakland (LCS-24) and Mobile (LCS-26).
“Littoral combat ships are just rolling off the assembly line at Austal, one after another in quick succession with each one better than the last,” Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle said in a statement. “We are excited to see all of the important contributions that our ships have been making to the Fleet and we stand ready with capacity now to efficiently build the Navy our nation needs while being able to support an aggressive growth plan to a 355 ship fleet,” he added.