{"id":5621,"date":"2019-08-04T23:54:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T04:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=5621"},"modified":"2019-08-04T23:54:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T04:54:41","slug":"u-s-navy-commissions-littoral-combat-ship-uss-billings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=5621","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Navy Commissions Littoral Combat Ship USS Billings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>KEY WEST, Fla.,\u00a0Aug. 3, 2019-\u00a0The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Billings (LCS 15) \u2013 the nation&#8217;s eighth Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) \u2013 in\u00a0Key West, Florida. This milestone places the ship, built by the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/LMT?p=LMT&amp;.tsrc=fin-srch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"LMT (opens in a new tab)\">LMT<\/a>) -led team into active service.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Billings was designed to operate and adapt to a rapidly changing environment,&#8221; said\u00a0Joe DePietro, vice president of Small Combatants and Ship Systems at Lockheed Martin. &#8220;She is equipped and ready for today&#8217;s threats and easily modifiable to meet the threats we may not even be aware of yet. Our team is confident Billings will be what the Navy needs when the fleet needs it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unique among combat ships, LCS is designed to complete close-to-shore missions and is a growing and relevant part of the Navy&#8217;s fleet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It is&nbsp;<strong>fast&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots.&nbsp;<\/li><li>It is&nbsp;<strong>automated&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 with the most efficient staffing of any combat ship.&nbsp;<\/li><li>It is&nbsp;<strong>lethal&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 standard equipped with Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) and a Mark 110 gun, capable of firing 220 rounds per minute.&nbsp;<\/li><li>It is&nbsp;<strong>flexible&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 with 40 percent of the hull easily reconfigurable, integrating capabilities like the Longbow Hellfire Missiles, 30mm guns, and manned and unmanned vehicles targeted to meet today&#8217;s and tomorrow&#8217;s missions.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Having now commanded two freedom class LCS variants, I would like to report that these ships are truly impressive and will fit well in the niche they have been designed for,&#8221; said LCS 15&#8217;s Commanding Officer, Commander&nbsp;Nathan Rowan. &#8220;They are fast, maneuverable, and their weapon systems are some of the most accurate I&#8217;ve witnessed on any platform of which I&#8217;ve previously served.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are seven ships in various stages of production and test at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in&nbsp;Wisconsin, where the Freedom-variant LCS is built. The next Freedom-variant in the class is LCS 17, the future USS Indianapolis, which was delivered in late July.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;On behalf of the proud 2,000 men and women who transform flat steel into a fast, agile surface combatant,&#8221; said&nbsp;Jan Allman, CEO of Fincantieri Marinette Marine, &#8220;we are honored to support the U.S. Navy, and we congratulate the outstanding crew of the USS Billings.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multimedia assets are available here:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Social media video:&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2542836-1&amp;h=3158989310&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F351803068&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F351803068\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/351803068<\/a><\/li><li>B-roll:&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2542836-1&amp;h=4083283039&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F351805414&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F351805414\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/351805414<\/a><\/li><li>Photos:&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2542836-1&amp;h=965410782&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F143371902%40N04%2Falbums%2F72157710070352016&amp;a=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F143371902%40N04%2Falbums%2F72157710070352016\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/143371902@N04\/albums\/72157710070352016<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, visit\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/c212.net\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2542836-1&amp;h=3687553260&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lockheedmartin.com%2Flcs&amp;a=www.lockheedmartin.com%2Flcs\">www.lockheedmartin.com\/lcs<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"975\" height=\"648\" src=\"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/USS-Billings.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/USS-Billings.jpg 975w, https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/USS-Billings-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/USS-Billings-768x510.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 975px) 100vw, 975px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Navy commissioned USS Billings (LCS 15) \u2013 the nation&#8217;s eighth Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) \u2013 in Key West, Florida. This milestone places the ship, built by the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) -led team into active service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5989,1836,5992,2203,4957,5446,1397],"tags":[2161,6018,1183,3516,1268,2196,1741,5524,5520,4320,5525,2436,78,2443,5523,1100,889,1981,412,1401,3774,4742,1149,631,4131,3588,3432,3605,1654],"class_list":["post-5621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boating-news","category-defense-news","category-economic-news","category-finance-news","category-global-politics","category-military-news","category-stock-news","tag-2161","tag-billings","tag-combat","tag-commission","tag-defense","tag-fincantieri","tag-florida","tag-freedom","tag-indianapolis","tag-key","tag-littoral","tag-lmt","tag-lockheed","tag-marine","tag-marinette","tag-martin","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-news","tag-nyse","tag-ship","tag-surface","tag-systems","tag-u-s","tag-uss","tag-variant","tag-weapon","tag-west","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5624,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621\/revisions\/5624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}