Here we see the Independence-class LCS USS Coronado (LCS-4). I had the honor of seeing her pieced together fro raw steel at Austal, on Mobile Bay back in 2013, the below image being sent in to be published in Warship International.
Photo by Chris Eger, email me if you want some super rez
She is the third U.S. Navy ship to carry the name of the California city that hosts the Navy SEALs BUD/s school, the first being the patrol frigate USS Coronado (PF-38), who served in World War II as a convoy escort, and the second being the all-white Austin-class amphibious transport dock “Building 11” USS Coronado (LPD/AGF-11), most famous for her long career as the flagship (and often only ship assigned) to the Persian Gulf during much of the tanker wars.
As you can see, she often flies the flag of her namesake city, “The Crown City,” which was officially adopted there in 1996.
160629-N-IY142-050 PEARL HARBOR (June 29, 2016) USS Coronado (LCS 4) arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for Rim of the Pacific 2016. Note her four-cell Harpoon mount forward, though only one-tube is mounted. The first for her class and/or type. She flies the green and white “Crown City” flag. (U.S. Navy Photo By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Herman/RELEASED)
Speaking of Harpoon, here is her historic first launch of the weapon last week.
“This Harpoon [demonstration] on USS Coronado supports the Navy’s larger distributed lethality concept to strengthen naval power at and from the sea to ensure the Navy maintains its maritime superiority,” said Rear Adm. Jon Hill, program executive officer for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) in a presser.
Harpoon can be launched from surface ships, submarines and aircraft and is currently used on 50 U.S. Navy surface combatants: 22 cruisers, 21 Flight I destroyers and seven Flight II destroyers. In the Coast Guard, the five remaining Hamilton-class 378′ high endurance cutters have weight and space reserved behind their 76mm gun for Harpoon and, while the follow-on National Security Cutter does not, variants of the design by Huntington-Ingalls shows two quad mounts on the vessel’s stern for the 1970s-era ship killer.
Coronado will deploy with four of the missiles later this summer.
