The Freedom class is one of two classes of the littoral combat ship program, built for the United States Navy.
The Freedom class was proposed by a consortium formed by Lockheed Martin as "prime contractor" and by Fincantieri (project) through the subsidiary Marinette Marine (manufacturer) as a contender for a fleet of small, multipurpose warships to operate in the littoral zone. Two ships were approved, to compete with the Independence-class design offered by General Dynamics and Austal for a construction contract of up to 55 vessels.
Despite plans in 2004 to only accept two each of the Freedom and Independence variants, in December 2010 the U.S. Navy announced plans to order up to 10 additional ships of each class, for a total 12 ships per class.
In early September 2016, the first four vessels of the LCS program, the Freedom class ships Freedom and Fort Worth and two Independence class, were announced to be used as test ships rather than being deployed with the fleet. In February 2020, the Navy announced that it plans to retire those same four ships. On 20 June 2020, the US Navy announced that all four would be taken out of commission in March 2021, and will be placed in inactive reserve.
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