USS Kansas City Arrives at San Diego Homeport Before Commissioning

The Navy’s newest littoral combat ship, the USS Kansas City, arrives at its new homeport at Naval Base San Diego. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kevin C. Leitner

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO — The next ship to be commissioned and carry the Kansas City name arrived at its homeport in San Diego on May 24, the commander of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 1 said in a release.

The future USS Kansas City arrived for the first time at Naval Base San Diego, where the U.S. Navy will commission the Independence-variant littoral combat ship on June 20.

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“I am extremely proud of all the hard work the crew has done to complete the sail around and prepare us to officially join the fleet on commissioning day,” said Cmdr. RJ Zamberlan, Kansas City’s commanding officer. “We are honored and excited to represent the Navy, the nation and our namesake as well as to fulfill the ship’s motto, ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall.’”

Kansas City will be homeported in San Diego with sister ships USS Independence, USS Coronado, USS Jackson, USS Montgomery, USS Gabrielle Giffords, USS Omaha, USS Manchester, USS Tulsa, USS Charleston and USS Cincinnati.

“The arrival of the Kansas City here today is exciting and the crew has worked incredibly hard to get to this point,” said Capt. Matthew McGonigle, commodore of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 1. “We look forward to ‘bringing the ship to life’ next month on the day of commissioning.”

Kansas City was built in Mobile, Alabama, by Austal USA in conjunction with General Dynamics. Prior to departing Mobile for San Diego, Kansas City’s crew conducted a 21-day restriction in movement in accordance with U.S. Navy pre-deployment guidelines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kansas City is the 21st LCS to be delivered to the Navy, and the 11th of the Independence-variant to join the fleet. The KC is the second ship to be named for the largest city in Missouri. The name was assigned to a heavy cruiser during World War II. However, construction was canceled after one month due to the end of the war.

The name Kansas City was also assigned to the Wichita-class replenishment oiler AOR 3 in 1967. This ship saw service during the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm and was decommissioned in 1994.