U.S. Navy commissions newest warship, others coming

The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest warship on Saturday, a 379-feet (115.5- metre) aluminium three-hulled vessel built by General Dynamics Corp, one of two designs vying for billions of dollars of follow-on orders. Skip related content Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told reporters as he travelled to the ceremony that the new class of shallow-water warships would be useful for a wide range of missions, including responding to humanitarian disasters like the earthquake in Haiti. Roughead said the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) built by Lockheed Martin Corp, which is in Norfolk, Virginia, awaiting deployment to the Caribbean, could be used to quickly move supplies from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba, to Haiti. "Right now we're working a lot of different options, but if the LCS would be of value in Haiti, then that's where it's going to be," Roughead said, noting the ship's shallow draft made it well-suited to bolster the U.S. military effort there. Regardless of which design wins, the Littoral Combat Ships will dramatically shift the way the Navy will operate, featuring interchangeable mission packages to hunt for mines, fight pirates or other enemies in small boats, or track enemy submarines -- depending on what is needed at the time. The ships also have a core crew of just 40 people, part of the Navy's drive to cut the number and cost of people aboard its ships. Even adding in a mission package and air crew, the staffing will be just 78 -- far less than comparable ships . The Navy expects to release within days the final request for proposals for a fierce competition between General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, whose steel monohull design entered service in September 2008. The contract, valued at well over $5 billion, will be 10 ships at a rate of two each year over the next five years, as well as the computer system to run five more ships. The Navy plans to buy a total of 55 of the faster, more agile ships. Roughead said he was pleased with the LCS program, and said it was critical to his plan to increase the size of the U.S. Navy to 313 ships from 288, the latest number after Saturday's commissioning. (Editing by Philip Barbara)