The U.S. Navy has completed acceptance trials for an Independence-class littoral combat ship built by Austal USA. The future USS Oakland (LCS 24) underwent various system tests and performed underway and in-port maneuvers at the Gulf of Mexico to clear the trials, the Navy said Friday.
The vessel also completed critical capability tests such as a combat system detect-to-engage sequence, steering and an anchor drop test. Once it gets commissioned, LCS 24 will be stationed at San Diego along with other Independence-class ships.
Four Independence-class units are currently constructed at Austal USA’s facility in Alabama, while the future USS Mobile (LCS 26) is now on its final assembly phase. The company has made preparations to build the future USS Pierre (LCS 38), USS Kingsville (LCS 36) and USS Augusta (LCS 34).
Related Articles
Gregory Barbaccia, federal chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has shared his insights on how the federal government should advance digital transformation. “I notice a lot of the government considers itself to be ‘digital,’ but in reality, we’ve only digitized, not transformed. Sure we went 0-1, but that should have just been the beginning,” Barbaccia wrote in a LinkedIn post. He noted the lack of automation and that workflows remain unchanged despite the replacement of paper ledgers with spreadsheets. “Files are shared over email instead of through real-time collaboration tools,” he added. Advancing Digital Transformation in Federal Government
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules that seek to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and address regulatory barriers to the ground-station-as-a-service, or GSaaS, business model as part of efforts to drive innovation in the U.S. space economy. FCC said Thursday the new rules establish a process for ground station operators to secure a baseline license without first identifying a satellite point of communication. A simple FCC notification will be required for each new point of communication. According to FCC, the change would eliminate nearly half of earth station modification applications. “Making the smallest change to a satellite system or earth
The General Services Administration has announced a OneGov agreement with Amazon Web Services that will provide up to $1 billion in direct incentive credits to federal civilian agencies. According to GSA, the direct incentive credits, aggregated across the agencies, will include savings on core AWS cloud services through AWS credits, infrastructure and application technologies modernization through AWS modernization credits, access to AWS training and certification through training credits and a streamlined engagement model with greater savings for direct contracts through direct partnerships. Advancing America’s AI Leadership The agreement is expected to accelerate large-scale IT transformation and boost AI innovation across