The USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) has been launched by the United States Navy at Mobile, Alabama’s Austal USA shipyard. As the 16th ship to be named after a woman and the 13th to be named after a living person since 1850, the vessel was named after Gabrielle Giffords who was a former Congresswoman from Tucson, Arizona. The ship is the third Independence-variant of the original block buy and is the first of the three that is constructed using Austal’s LCS modular manufacturing facility. As continuous fitting and activation continues for the USS Gabrielle Giffords, the final delivery to the fleet is expected to be in 2017.
