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LCS-4 Coronado

USS Coronado (LCS-4) is named for the city of Coronado, Calif., and honors the city's deep ties to the U.S. Navy. Coronado has been home to Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Amphibious Base, since 1917. The Coronado (LCS 4) is the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Coronado and the second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to feature an innovative, proven trimaran hull. The unique hull design offers unparalleled stability for marine and aviation operations up to and including Sea State 5. Coronado, the second Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship, is being constructed in Austal USA’s Modular Manufacturing Facility (MMF). It is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Navy in 2012.

On 30 April 2009 the U.S. Navy awarded General Dynamics a contract to construct Coronado (LCS 4), the second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to feature an innovative, high-speed trimaran hull. This contract will support more than 500 jobs in Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard, as well as more than 100 employees of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Pittsfield, Mass.

On 17 December 2009 the keel laying ceremony was held in Mobile at Austal USA’s Assembly Bay 4 to record completion of the first major construction milestone for the Coronado (LCS 4). In attendance were a number of Navy representatives, including RDML James Murdoch, Navy Littoral Combat Ship Program Manager, and members of the General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship Team, including members of the Austal USA work force.

On 14 January 2012 the Christening ceremony for the Coronado was held in Mobile. Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition, Sean Stackley, delivered the principal address at the ceremony, and Susan Ring Keith served as the ship's sponsor.

The Coronado (LCS 4) is an innovative surface combatant designed to operate in littoral seas and shallow water to counter mines, submarines and fast surface craft threats in coastal regions.

The Navy will commission the newest littoral combat ship, USS Coronado (LCS 4), Saturday, 05 April 2014, during a 10 a.m. ceremony at Pier J on Naval Air Station North Island. Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mark Ferguson, will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Susan Ring Keith, a longtime resident of Coronado, will serve as sponsor of the ship. Her mother, Eleanor Ring, was the sponsor for the previous USS Coronado (AGF 11). The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when Keith will give the first order to "man our ship and bring her to life!"

The first littoral combat ship rotational crew commissioning ceremony was held for Crew 212 on 09 October 2014 at Admiral Baker Park. "We wanted to make sure that we brought our crew to life, as we would have done with any ship that we were previously assigned to," said Lt. Ryan Patrick Murthan, Crew 212 main propulsion assistant.

The commissioning ceremony was the first of its kind since LCS crew rotations will be fully certified before arriving on-hull. This is a new method of operating within the LCS community and crew 212 is the first to accomplish it. The ceremony opened with the announcement of the newly commissioned crew and its plans for the future. Several Sailors received awards and recognition throughout the ceremony for their performance during the establishment of the crew.

Crew 212 became qualified through various trainings and schools throughout the United States to prepare for their duties as a rotational LCS crew. The crew went to USS Coronado in January 2015 to finish operational maintenance and conduct engineering certifications at sea to validate the ship is ready to deploy.

USS Coronado (LCS 4) successfully tracked and neutralized both single and multiple fast inshore attack craft during live-fire testing off the coast of California July 18-22, 2015. The ship's crew and embarked surface warfare (SUW) mission package (MP) detachment conducted test events using the ship's core weapons system - the Mk 110 57mm gun-and the embarked SUW MP Mk 46 30mm gun weapon systems (GWS) against a "swarm raid" of representative fast inshore attack craft. In a swarm raid, multiple enemy ships attempt to attack a ship using large numbers of smaller craft.

The test validated the accuracy and capability of the ship's weapons systems against representative attack craft in an operationally realistic scenario. This test is part of a larger series of test and trial events which will culminate this fall in the initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) of the Independence-variant LCS operating with a surface warfare mission package. IOT&E is a major developmental milestone for defense systems, confirming a system is operationally effective as designed and built. The Navy completed Freedom-variant testing last fall aboard USS Fort Worth (LCS 3).