 On 31 March 2016, Austal announced the order to build the thirteenth "Independence"-class vessel with a congressional cost cap of $564 million, which had been placed as an option under Austal's existing 10-vessel block-buy contract.LCS-26 will be the eleventh vessel built under that contract and the thirteenth "Independence"-class vessel overall (the first two ships, "Independence" and "Coronado" were built prior to award of the 10-vessel contract).In September 2016, Secretary Mabus announced the name of the next ship, .