Photo courtesy of Navy blogger Instapinch.
The latest Navy fast-burner’s feet are officially wet.
Launched, but not commissioned. Though the Indy is floating, Lockheed still has a laundry list of work to do before she’s ready to assume her official USS designator and (presumably) start sending Somali pirates to Davy Jones’ Locker or put the fear of Allah in Iranian fast-boast crews. She comes in at an estimated $400 million (or two F-22s!), which is an awful lot of dosh for a job that could probably be accomplished with a volley from a 5-inch Mark 45 deck gun. In fairness though, the trimaran hulled LCS does bring in a whole new class of capabilities that would be quite useful in fighting, say, off the target-rich shores of the Iranian gulf isles. Wonder if her older (but lamer looking) sister ship, the Freedom, is first tasked with escorting battle groups in and out of the Persian Gulf.
