The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny Tugs VERMONT and WASHINGTON  assist­ed the USS LITTLE ROCK LCS9 in Buf­fa­lo on Decem­ber 4. The high-speed ship steered from Lake Erie into the Buf­fa­lo Har­bor to dock at Canal­side, about 50 feet from the decom­mis­sioned World War II era USS Lit­tle Rock guid­ed mis­sile cruis­er. The Navy com­mis­sioned the $440 mil­lion ship on Decem­ber 16.

The new USS Lit­tle Rock is one of the Navy’s newest war­ships. It was built in Marinette, Wis­con­sin and is a Lit­toral Com­bat Ship (LCS) that will oper­ate in waters close to the shore. The ves­sel also has a heli­copter pad, a ramp for small boats and can be used by small assault forces.

The orig­i­nal USS Lit­tle Rock began its ser­vice as a light cruis­er when World War II was com­ing to an end in 1945. It was offi­cial­ly decom­mis­sioned in 1949 and recom­mis­sioned in 1960 as a guid­ed mis­sile cruis­er, before being tak­en out of ser­vice in 1976 and brought to Buffalo.

The name of the orig­i­nal USS Lit­tle Rock and the new ves­sel both pay trib­ute to Arkansas’ state cap­i­tal. In her role, the USS Lit­tle Rock will play an impor­tant role in the new fleet of war­ships that will car­ry out our nation’s future mar­itime strategy.