USS Jackson (LCS-6)

USS Jackson (LCS-6) is an Independence-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy, and the first ship to be named for Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.

Design
In 2002, the U.S. Navy initiated a program to develop the first of a fleet of littoral combat ships. The Navy initially ordered two trimaran hulled ships from General Dynamics, which became known as the Independence-class littoral combat ships after the first ship of the class, USS Independence. Even-numbered U.S. Navy littoral combat ships are built using the Independence-class trimaran design, while odd-numbered ships are based on a competing design, the conventional monohull Freedom-class littoral combat ship. The initial order of littoral combat ships involved a total of four ships, including two of the Independence-class design. On 29 December 2010, the Navy announced that it was awarding Austal USA a contract to build ten additional Independence-class littoral combat ships.

Jackson is the third Independence-class littoral combat ship to be built. Jackson was built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. Jackson is the second Independence-class ship to carry standard 7 m long rigid-hulled inflatable boats and improvements in corrosion protection and propulsion over the original Independence (LCS-2) design.

History
Construction of Jackson began on 1 August 2011 with the first cutting of aluminum at Austal USA's Modular Manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. The name of the ship was announced on 5 October 2011. The ship was launched on 14 December 2013. Jackson was delivered to the Navy on 11 August 2015 and placed into service that day. The ship was commissioned in a 5 December 2015 ceremony at Gulfport, Mississippi. She has been assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One

Jackson underwent the first of three shock trials in waters off Florida on 16 June 2016, and the last being reported having been completed the week prior to 20 July 2016. A charge of 10,000 lb was set off at around 100 yd with the ship wired with around 260 instruments to record the effects.

On 23 May 2022, Jackson participated in the 28th Annual CARAT exercise with the Royal Thai Navy as a part of the Combined Task Force (CTF) 72. Jackson is attached to DESRON 7 and the US 7th Fleet. The MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter was recently deployed on the ship.

Jackson is scheduled to be decommissioned sometime in 2024.