The US Navy decommissioned the Freedom-class littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Fort Worth during a ceremony at Naval Base San Diego on Wednesday, July 29.
The second Freedom-class LCS and the first US Navy ship to be named after the city of Fort Worth in Texas served for nearly 14 years, having been commissioned in Galveston on September 22, 2012.
Built by Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine, in Marinette, Wisconsin, Fort Worth was designed as a test platform for the Freedom-class LCS. The navy said that since her commissioning, she has been at the forefront of testing and validating new naval technologies and warfare capabilities.
The ship completed one of the longest deployments of the US Seventh Fleet area of operations to date, with 16 months at sea and more than 15,000 nautical miles traveled in the Western Pacific.
Fort Worth also conducted experimentation with the first LCS anti-submarine warfare module. After returning to her homeport of San Diego, she once again served as a training platform.
After the decommissioning and inactivation, the ship will be towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, in Bremerton, Washington, where she will be placed in a dismantle status.
Fort Worth is the sixth Freedom-class LCS to be decommissioned. Ten ships of the class remain in US Navy service.