USS Cleveland Closes the Book on the Freedom-Class Littoral Combat Ship

A ceremony loaded with symbolism

On May 16, 2026, the US Navy officially commissioned the USS Cleveland (LCS 31), its newest and final littoral combat ship of the Freedom variant. The ceremony was held in the ship's namesake city of Cleveland, Ohio, before thousands of spectators who came to witness this historic moment for the American Navy.

The Acting Secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, said during the ceremony: "Today, we celebrate the sailors who bring this ship to life. To the officers and crew of the USS Cleveland, today is your day."

The crowd that gathered along the waterfront included veterans, local officials, and families of the crew, many of whom had waited years to see this day arrive after repeated delays in the ship's construction and delivery schedule. For a city with deep industrial roots on the Great Lakes, the commissioning carried a weight that went beyond the usual naval pageantry.

The sixteenth and last of its line

The USS Cleveland is the 16th and final ship of the Freedom class to join the fleet, marking the end of a program launched on November 8, 2008, with the commissioning of the USS Freedom. This ship is also the fourth to bear the name of the Ohio city.

Recurring mechanical problems

According to Navy Times, the littoral combat ship program was marked by years of mechanical problems, runaway costs, and the early retirement of several ships in the class. These issues drew repeated criticism from American defense analysts over the years.

Despite these setbacks, the Navy chose to see the program through to completion rather than abandon it midway, a decision that illustrates how hard it is to reverse course once a weapons program reaches a certain level of industrial and political investment.

Congressional oversight committees repeatedly pressed Navy leadership over the years to explain cost overruns and reliability failures tied to the class, hearings that at times became testy exchanges between lawmakers and program managers unable to offer firm assurances about when the persistent problems would finally be resolved.

A class finally completed despite it all

According to Wikipedia and several specialized sources, the Navy had announced that the USS Cleveland would be the last ship of the Freedom class to be built, even though additional orders for Independence-variant ships had also been placed separately.

Construction and delivery stretched over several years

The USS Cleveland was laid down in June 2021, christened in April 2023, and delivered to the fleet on November 26, 2025, by the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, according to Stars and Stripes. That delivery marked the definitive close of Freedom-class construction after more than twenty years of industrial effort.

The gap of more than four years between laying down the keel and final delivery reflects the broader production slowdown that affected the class in its later years, as the shipyard worked through a backlog of technical fixes demanded by the Navy before it would accept another hull into the fleet.

Between its delivery and its commissioning ceremony, the ship made several notable port calls, including Quebec City, Halifax, and Newport, according to U.S. Fleet Forces Command, before reaching its home port.

A symbolic journey to its hometown

The ship's route from Marinette, Wisconsin, to its commissioning ceremony in its namesake city required careful coordination among the crew's various divisions, with each stage demanding rigorous technical preparation before the final arrival.

A century-old naval tradition observed to the letter

In keeping with American naval tradition, the ship's sponsor, Robyn Modly, wife of former Navy Under Secretary Thomas Modly and a Cleveland native, gave the traditional order: "Man our ship and bring her to life!" At that signal, the crew ran aboard to take possession of the ship.

That moment, captured on camera by the Navy, symbolically marks the ship's transition from a simple metal structure to a fully operational naval unit, integrated into the active United States fleet.

Military and civilian dignitaries gathered for the occasion

Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, also spoke at the ceremony, alongside the ship's commanding officer, Commander Bruce Hallett, who urged his crew to "forge a legacy that will endure long after we've all left these decks."

A home port built for forward presence

After its commissioning ceremony, the USS Cleveland reached its permanent home port at Naval Station Mayport in Florida. According to the US Navy, this assignment is meant to support forward presence, maritime security, sea control, and deterrence in key operational theaters.

Mayport already hosts a cluster of surface combatants, making it a natural fit for a new littoral combat ship whose shallow draft and modular mission systems are best suited to operations closer to shore than the open-ocean patrols typically assigned to larger destroyers and cruisers based elsewhere on the East Coast.

This strategic positioning in Florida puts the ship close to areas of major interest for American maritime security, particularly the Caribbean and the western Atlantic, regions where American naval presence remains a constant priority.

An operational role still to be fully defined

Although its precise mission remains to be clarified in the months following its commissioning, naval analysts expect the USS Cleveland to quickly take part in security patrols and littoral control exercises, in line with the traditional role of its ship class.

A page turning for the US Navy

The end of Freedom-class ship production marks a turning point in American naval strategy, which will now have to rely on other platforms for its littoral combat missions, particularly the Independence class already in service and future programs still in development.

Some retired officers have argued publicly that the Navy should use this moment to conduct an honest after-action review of the entire littoral combat ship concept, rather than simply moving on to the next shipbuilding program without absorbing the lessons of what went wrong the first time.

This transition comes as US Navy priorities shift toward increasingly complex threats, particularly those posed by the rapid modernization of the Chinese and Russian fleets, pushing for a deep rethink of future capability needs.

An industrial legacy despite the criticism

Despite the technical criticism accumulated over the years, the program helped build significant industrial expertise at builders like Fincantieri Marinette Marine, expertise that could benefit future American naval projects.

Necessary modernization against strategic rivals

The commissioning of the USS Cleveland comes at a time when China continues to rapidly expand its own navy, now considered by several defense analysts to be the largest in the world by number of active ships.

In this context of intense strategic competition, every new unit added to the American fleet, even one from a controversial program, helps maintain a credible naval presence against the growing maritime ambitions of Beijing and Moscow.

A fleet that must keep modernizing quickly

Naval strategy experts generally agree that the end of the Freedom program should not slow the US Navy's broader modernization efforts, which must continue investing heavily in new generations of ships to preserve its strategic edge against its rivals.

Community days before the official ceremony

In the days leading up to the ceremony, the USS Cleveland crew took part in a community day in the city, allowing local residents to meet the sailors before they officially entered service. A commander's dinner was also organized to mark the occasion for local and military dignitaries.

An enlistment ceremony also allowed several Ohio natives to take their oath before the future USS Cleveland, a powerful symbolic gesture that strengthened the bond between the city and its namesake ship.

One chapter closes, another begins

The commissioning of the USS Cleveland marks both the end of a turbulent naval program and the beginning of a new chapter of service for this ship and its crew. Despite the technical criticism accumulated over the years, the May 16 ceremony offered a moment of legitimate pride for the sailors involved.

A fleet that must now look to the future

As the Freedom class takes its final bow, the US Navy's attention now turns to the next generations of combat ships, in a context of global naval competition that leaves little room for strategic slowdown.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

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