How to tour the Navy combat ship anchored in Narragansett Bay for the Fourth of July
Regular observers of the ships coming in and out of Narragansett Bay may have noticed an uncommon guest in port: while the Navy has a longstanding presence in Newport, it’s not every day you see a full-blown warship cruising up the bay.
The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the 11th Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), a class of 387-foot surface vessels purpose-built by Lockheed Martin for near-shore combat (“littoral” means “relating to or situated on the shore of a sea or a lake) and capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots.
Bruce Katz, the public affairs officer at Naval Station Newport, told The Newport Daily News, “Newport is not home to any warship, so when we have a warship come to town it is a pretty big deal. We have a lot of servicemembers here (on Aquidneck Island), so having the USS Minneapolis here is a great opportunity for the public to tour a Naval vessel.”
Public tours July 1-2 will start with a launch ride from Bristol’s Rockwell Park
The USS Minneapolis-St. Paul will be allowing the public to tour the vessel. People interested in seeing the ship will need to get to the docks at Rockwell Park in Bristol, which is next to the Prudence Island ferry dock. Tours will run from 9 a.m.–4 p.m., with a launch bringing passengers out to the vessel’s anchorage off Hog Island shoal. Passengers should bring ID and anticipate going through metal detectors and security screenings before boarding the vessel.
Depending on its exact anchorage point, the ship will likely be visible from the Mount Hope Bridge and certain points on the Portsmouth coastline. Two Coast Guard cutters, the Razorbill and the Warren Deyampert, will also be docked in Bristol and will be available for tours with no need for a launch ride to access them.
The Navy has built Littoral Combat Ships since 2008 and the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul was commissioned in 2022
Littoral combat ships are comparable to a class of ship sometimes called “corvettes” in other navies. The US Navy has two classes of LCS: the Freedom class and the Independence class. They are smaller than earlier Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, but larger than Cyclone-class patrol ships.
The ships have a flight deck and hangar for housing two SH-60 or MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, a stern ramp for operating small boats, and are capable of delivering a small assault force with fighting vehicles to roll-on/roll-off port facilities.
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Their armaments include Mk 110 57 mm guns and RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles. They are also equipped with autonomous air, surface, and underwater vehicles. They possess lower air defense and surface warfare capabilities than destroyers, and are relatively agile, with a shallow draft of only 14 feet.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Navy combat ship USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul anchored in RI
