From Times of San Diego
SAN DIEGO — The Navy will commission the USS Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, the latest littoral combat ship headed for San Diego.
The trimaran variant of the the fast, agile class of ships is named for the former Arizona Congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2012 that left her with a brain injury.
The commissioning was scheduled in Galveston, TX, with Dr. Jill Biden, wife of former Vice President Joseph Biden, serving as the ship’s sponsor.
In a time-honored Navy tradition, sponsors give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”
Sean Stackley, acting secretary of the Navy, described the ship as “a testament to the skill and dedication of our nation’s remarkable shipbuilders, who will be remembered for decades to come as LCS 10 deploys around the world to protect our freedoms.”
The littoral combat ships are designed to operate in near-shore environments yet are capable of open-ocean operation. They are designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.
The ships are being built in both a trimaran variant like the Gabrielle Giffords and a single-hull version.
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Giffords is a member of the Jewish community. This story was republished from the Times of San Diego under the auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.