US Navy's newest warship

MOBILE (Alabama) - THE US Navy commissioned its newest warship on Saturday, a 379-feet (115.5- metre) aluminum three-hulled vessel built by General Dynamics Corp, one of two designs vying for billions of dollars of follow-on orders.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told reporters as he travelled to the ceremony that the new class of fast, flexible shallow-water warships would be useful for a wide range of missions, including responding to humanitarian disasters like the earthquake in Haiti.

Admiral Roughead said the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) built by Lockheed Martin Corp, a more traditional steel monohull ship which is in Norfolk, Virginia, awaiting deployment to the Caribbean, could be used to quickly move supplies from the US military base at Guantanamo, Cuba, to Haiti.

'Right now we're working a lot of different options, but if the LCS would be of value in Haiti, then that's where it's going to be,' Admiral Roughead said, noting the ship's shallow draft made it well-suited to bolster the US military effort there.

Regardless of which design wins, the Littoral Combat Ships will dramatically shift the way the Navy will operate, featuring interchangeable mission packages to hunt for mines, fight pirates or other enemies in small boats, or track enemy submarines - depending on what is needed at the time.

If he had more of the new ships - which carry manned and unmanned helicopters - already available, they would be deployed like a 'swarm of bees' around Haiti, Admiral Roughead said. -- REUTERS