US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has formally announced the name for the next littoral combat ship (LCS), currently under construction by Austal USA. LCS 10 will be named USS 'Gabrielle Giffords', after the former Congresswoman from Tuscon, Arizona.
She will be the third ship in Austal's current US Navy contract for construction of up to an additional ten littoral combat ships, with a total value in excess of US$3.5 billion. Once commissioned, these ten ships will join the Austal-built USS 'Independence' (LCS 2), which was commissioned in January 2010. USS 'Coronado' (LCS 4) was recently christened at Austal and is currently being prepared to undergo builder's trials.
On January 8, 2011, Gabrielle Giffords was a victim of a shooting, believed to have been an assassination attempt, during a public meeting at a supermarket near Tucson . She was critically injured by a gunshot wound to the head; thirteen people were injured and six others were killed in the shooting. Giffords has subsequently recovered some of her ability to walk, speak, read and write, resigning from her congressional seat last month to concentrate on recovering from her wounds.
