St. Pete Port to Host U.S. Naval Warship

Port of St. Petersburg has hosted some world-famous private vessels, such as Tatoosh, the $162 million beauty owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen .

But it has not welcomed many superstar military vessels – until now.

Come Labor Day Weekend,  the USS Independence (LCS-2) will dock in the Port of St. Petersburg for a weekend. It will be the first naval military vessel to dock at the Port of St. Petersburg, said U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Indian Shores), who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

While in St. Petersburg Labor Day Weekend, the ship will be open for public inspection. The crew will also be guests when the Tampa Bay Rays host the Baltimore Orioles and the Texas Rangers that weekend.

All it took was a high-level invitation from Young, after he learned the ship would be leaving action in the Persian Gulf, returning to its home port of San Diego.

"When I learned it was heading in this direction, I thought, 'Why not?'" Young said in having St. Petersburg host the ship's crew for a weekend.

The USS Independence will be heading eventually to the Panama Canal to return to San Diego. Young admitted the Navy does not publish a military ship's itinerary coming from a combat region.

"We've never had a major Navy ship here because our channels are just too shallow," Young said. "This ship operates in very shallow water confines. So I talked to the Chief of Naval Operations [Adm. Gary Roughead] and he thought, 'Hey, this will work out.' "

The vessel is known as a small assault transport.

Per the ship's official Facebook page, the USS Independence (LCS-2) is "a fast, agile, mission-focused ship that demonstrates the latest in naval warfighting technology. The ship is specifically designed to defeat 'anti-access' threats in shallow, coastal water regions, including fast surface craft, quiet diesel submarines and mines."

The ship also has a "interchangeable modular design" which changes depending on the mission. It is a 419-foot long aluminum trimaran that can travel in excess of 45 knots. It carries a crew of 40 sailors.

The original USS Independence, an aircraft carrier, was decommisioned in 1998.

Young said at a news conference at the Port of St. Petersburg, which was also attended by St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster,  that the vessel can travel up to 60 knots which is roughly 69 miles per hour.

Young also noted that the USS Independence normally patrols straits in the Persian Gulf, much like the Florida Straits between Cuba and the Florida Keys.

The ship was christened Jan. 6, 2010 in Mobile, Ala., though it has some local roots. Many of the instruments on board, including its missile defense system, were designed by Raytheon in St. Petersburg.