USS Wichita will be delivered to the Navy later this summer

The U.S. Navy is one step closer to commissioning a combat ship carrying Wichita’s name.

The future USS Wichita recently passed a series of tests known as acceptance trials and is scheduled for delivery to the Navy later this summer. It’s expected to be commissioned by early next year.

The tradition of naming ships after U.S. cities helps connect sailors with their home, said Sean Patton, director of business development for Lockheed Martin Corporation, the company that built the ship. “When you’re a sailor — and I was one — you’re deeply associated with the ship,” Patton said. “You have a relationship with the city.”

USS Wichita crew members have visited Wichita as part of a tradition of crew members visiting their ship’s namesake city. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus visited Wichita in 2015 for a ship-naming ceremony at the City Council.

“It gives you a great grounding in what you’re doing,” Patton said. “When you’re in the service, you’re serving the nation. When you’re named after a city, it really brings out that mission and your sense of service.

“The crew, as they wear their ball caps that say ‘USS Wichita,’ they’re going to be representatives of the city. That ship will deploy all around the world. The spirit of the city lives with the crew.”

Because the USS Wichita, a littoral combat ship, is small enough to operate in shallow waters, it will be able to carry out a variety of tasks, Patton said, including humanitarian missions, anti-drug operations and anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare.

Patton said the ship is unique in that it will only carry about 100 crew members. The shipbuilding industry has wanted to reduce the number of people needed on combat ships, but this is the first time it has been implemented, Patton said.

The ship will carry drones, launch missiles and a helicopter, Patton said.

“While it (the ship) is able to fight, because of its size, it can also operate in other parts of the world to do less intensive operations,” Patton said.

The ship is the third Navy combat ship named after Wichita. The first USS Wichita was commissioned in 1939 and served in World War II. The second USS Wichita was commissioned in 1968 and served in the Vietnam War.

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 5:31 PM.