New Freedom-class ship “Beloit” was launched in the US

Fincantieri shipbuilding company has launched a new Freedom-class ship for the United States Navy.

This was reported by journalist Chris Kavas, who was at the scene and published photos.

The Littoral Combat Ship was named “Beloit” (LCS-29).

Ships of this class are being built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine under the agreement signed in October 2017.

The partner of the shipbuilder is Lockheed Martin.

The American LCS class ships come in two variants, Freedom and Independence. Freedom-class design was led by Lockheed Martin and Independence-class by Austal USA.

The ships are intended for coastal actions of the United States Navy.

These coastal warships are comparable to the corvettes of other fleets.

It has a length of 377 feet (115 m), displacement of 3,500 metric tons and can reach up to 47 knots in speed (87 km/h; 54 miles per hour).

The Freedom-class LCS is armed with a single 57 mm BAE Systems Mk 110 naval gun, one Mk 49 launcher system with 21 RIM-16 anti-aircraft missiles.

Other equipment includes four 12.7 mm large-caliber machine guns, two 30 mm automatic cannons Mk44 Bushmaster II, eight naval strike missiles RGM-184A, 24 AGM-114L Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.

The ship can be equipped with a 150 kW high-energy laser weapon designed by Lockheed Martin.