Fort Worth to hit the seas in form of new Navy vessel

by Steve Smith of West and Clear

From a news release from U.S. Rep. Kay Granger:

Today, the Department of Defense announced the naming of the Navy’s newest littoral combat ship, LCS-3, the USS FORT WORTH. The announcement comes nearly three years after citizens in our community began a grassroots effort to name the ship after the city in honor of Fort Worth’s rich military history.

I launched the USS FORT WORTH Ship Naming Commission in hopes of convincing Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter to honor our city by giving this ship our name, and the community responded, sending thousands of postcards to Secretary Winter requesting his help. Fort Worth has been home to ranger outposts, training facilities, airbases, and defense manufacturing, but never had a ship named for it until now.

Today, I’m happy to say that Secretary Winter has rewarded our grassroots efforts.

The littoral combat ship is a cutting-edge ship that is designed to allow access to shallow coastal waters for missions such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. It will also be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads that can be changed out quickly to accommodate various missions.

The USS FORT WORTH will be designated LCS-3 and will be built by Lockheed Martin. It will be 378 feet in length, have a waterline beam of 57 feet, displace approximately 3,000 tons and will make speed in excess of 40 knots.

Currently, the USS FREEDOM (LCS-1) is the only littoral combat ship in service. Another ship, LCS-2, is being built and will be named the USS INDEPENDENCE. The vessels in the Freedom class are named after American mid-sized cities, small towns and communities.

I’d like to congratulate the city of Fort Worth for receiving this incredible honor and thank the Navy for recognizing and projecting our city’s military heritage across the globe.