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USS Little Rock (LCS 9)

USS LITTLE ROCK was the fifth FREEDOM - class Littoral Combat Ship and the second ship in the Navy named after the city of Little Rock in Arkansas. Last homeported in Mayport, Fla., she was decommissioned on September 29, 2023, after not even 7 years of service.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS LITTLE ROCK. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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• Click here to see which USS LITTLE ROCK memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS LITTLE ROCK History:

USS LITTLE ROCK was ordered on December 29, 2010, as a FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ship to be built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Wisconsin. The Secretary of the Navy announced the name LITTLE ROCK on July 15, 2011, honoring Arkansas's capital city. The keel-laying and authentication were held at Marinette on June 27, 2013, with Janee L. Bonner serving as ship sponsor. After two years of construction and outfitting, the ship was christened and launched at Marinette on July 18, 2015. Following builder's workups on the Great Lakes, LITTLE ROCK conducted acceptance trials on Lake Michigan on August 25, 2017, and the Navy accepted delivery at Marinette on September 25, 2017. She departed the Great Lakes that autumn for a historic commissioning in Buffalo, New York, arriving in early December. On December 16, 2017, LITTLE ROCK was commissioned at Canalside Buffalo alongside her namesake museum ship LITTLE ROCK (CL-92/CLG-4/CG-4) - the first time in U.S. Navy history a new warship entered service beside its namesake.

Severe winter conditions then delayed the new ship's southbound transit through the St. Lawrence Seaway. LITTLE ROCK moored at Montreal and remained there for the winter. She finally cleared the ice and departed on March 31, 2018, and continued to her homeport. On April 12, 2018, LITTLE ROCK arrived at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, for the first time as a commissioned unit and reported to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron TWO (LCSRON 2) under Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic. After a short post-arrival maintenance and crew-training period, she sailed north to support Fleet Week New York from May 23-29, 2018, opening to public tours at the Staten Island Homeport Pier before returning to routine training and systems checks in the Jacksonville Operating Areas.

Throughout 2019, the ship continued basic phase training, mission-package integration, and logistics preparations in Mayport while building LCS crew proficiency in aviation, small boat, and surface warfare modules in anticipation of a first operational cruise to the U.S. 4th Fleet area. The ship operated under the rotational "Blue/Gold" construct that LCS units use to sustain readiness with smaller crews.

On February 6, 2020, LITTLE ROCK departed Mayport on her maiden deployment to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in support of 4th Fleet's counter-illicit trafficking mission and Operation Martillo. She deployed with the Surface Warfare (SUW) mission package, an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, and an embarked helicopter detachment. En route south she made a logistics stop at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving February 10, 2020. Through February 22 and February 28, 2020, the ship conducted small-boat and search-and-rescue drills off Guantanamo while staging for sustained patrols in the Caribbean Sea. During the spring of 2020, she operated with Joint Interagency Task Force South in multinational interdiction efforts focused on go-fast craft and other smuggling vectors in the Caribbean approaches. After completing her first operational period, LITTLE ROCK returned to Mayport on June 1, 2020, and entered a post-deployment maintenance availability in the Jacksonville area before resuming local operations.

In 2021, the Navy's broader FREEDOM-variant reliability improvements and class sustainment work continued. LITTLE ROCK alternated between local underway periods and maintenance as LCSRON 2 standardized training and material baselines across the Mayport LCS division. On January 22, 2022, while conducting trials off Florida, the ship experienced a temporary loss of power and returned safely to port for troubleshooting and repairs. That spring, in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget cycle, Congress deferred the Navy's initial proposal to inactivate LITTLE ROCK, allowing LCSRON 2 to complete her readiness cycle and plan another deployment.

LITTLE ROCK began 2023 with a Light-Off Assessment from January 11-14, which certified key engineering systems for operations, and completed Basic Phase events ahead of deployment. She got underway for 4th Fleet on March 31, 2023, once again with a Coast Guard LEDET and an embarked helicopter, assigned operationally to Commander, Task Force 45. In April and May 2023, while patrolling the Caribbean, the ship conducted multiple interdictions of suspected smuggling vessels, with detentions of crews and multi-ton cocaine seizures recorded across several boardings in coordination with JIATF South and partner forces. In early July 2023, LITTLE ROCK set a course for Colombia to join the in-port phase of the multinational exercise UNITAS LXIV at Cartagena. She arrived on July 11, 2023. From July 11-21, 2023, the ship participated in UNITAS at sea with regional and extra-regional navies. U.S. units in the 2023 edition included USS NEW YORK (LPD 21), USS COLE (DDG 67), USS PASADENA (SSN 752), and USNS BURLINGTON (T-EPF 10), and the exercise emphasized combined maritime security operations, boarding operations, and integration with unmanned systems. After UNITAS, LITTLE ROCK resumed counter-drug patrols in the Caribbean under CTF-45, working with U.S. and partner assets to interdict additional go-fast craft and transfer detainees and contraband to U.S. cutters at designated rendezvous points.

Upon completion of her deployment, LITTLE ROCK returned to Mayport in late September 2023 and was inactivated at the end of the fiscal year. She was formally decommissioned at Naval Station Mayport on September 29, 2023, after just under six years in commission. The ship then entered lay-up status pending disposition. On March 29, 2024, LITTLE ROCK arrived under tow at the Philadelphia Navy Yard back basin for inactive storage while the Navy evaluated potential foreign military sale options and final disposition.

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USS LITTLE ROCK Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning on May 25, 2018, during an open ship event aboard USS LITTLE ROCK (LCS 9) as part of Fleet Week New York.

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The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the decommissioned LITTLE ROCK at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on October 12, 2023. The ship was decommissioned two weeks earlier on September 29, 2023.

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