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Freedom (LCS 1).
Of all the tools the Navy will employ to control the seas in any future war,
the most useful of the small types of combatant ships, the destroyer,
will be sure to be there.
Its appearance may be altered and it may even be called by another name,
but no type—not even the carrier or the submarine—
has such an assured place in future navies.
— Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
“What does ‘littoral’ mean?” an oldtimer asks. “Is this a destroyer? If so, why isn’t she named for a person?”
lit·to·ral. Adjective or noun. Etymology: Latin litoralis, from litor-, litus seashore.
Definition: of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore especially of the sea.
In the three decades since the 1970s, when the US Navy’s Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates first entered service, foreign powers have continued with frigate development, packing ever more capability into hulls as large as 5,000 tons. As junior-sized versions of the Arleigh Burke and other AEGIS classes around the world, even fitted with vertical launch systems (VLS) in some cases, these ships vindicate Adm. Nimitz’s prognostication about the longevity of the destroyer type.
Silhouettes Freedom-Fletcher

Silhouettes of Freedom and Fletcher classes to scale.

The US Navy, with its carrier striking forces supported by a growing fleet of Arleigh Burkes, has been confident of its blue-water strength but, drawing on 20 years’ experience in the confined waters of the Persian Gulf, has reconsidered what type of ship would be most useful there. Not the type of frigate seen abroad, it turns out, but a new type capable of being configured differently for different missions (e.g., antisubmarine, mine or surface warfare, though not all at once).

Here she is (top), the first “littoral combat ship,” enjoying the fresh waters of Lake Michigan where she was born. She’s just three feet longer than a Fletcher and she can do some of the same things (though cruising the “Slot” looking for the “Tokyo Express” is not a priority), reaching speeds (45 knots) and places (20 feet of water) that modern destroyers and frigates cannot match.

USS Freedom (LCS 1) commissioned on 8 November 2008. USS Independence (LCS 2), a trimaran, was christened 4 October 2008. It will be interesting to see how they will be used, whether the Navy builds more and whether the Navy returns to a conventional frigate design in the future.