The USS Pierre, the last Independence-class littoral combat ship the Navy intends to build, was commissioned Saturday at Port Panama City in Florida and will soon sail to San Diego, its permanent home port.
The 418-foot Pierre is a high-speed, shallow draft vessel that the Navy says it will use to operate in near-shore waters to conduct mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and maritime security. It cost nearly $600 million to build.
The Navy has built 19 Independence-class warships, which have proven to be more costly to operate than expected. More than a dozen of these ships are homeported in San Diego, the largest Navy installation site on the West Coast.