The sun rises over the newest Navy ship USS Nantucket and the oldest Navy ship, the USS Constitution, on the USS Nantucket’s commissioning day in Boston, Nov. 16, 2024. (EJ Hersom/U.S. Navy)

The USS Nantucket was commissioned at a ceremony in Boston, Mass., on Saturday morning, three years after it was first launched and five years after construction began.

The USS Nantucket is part of the littoral combat ship, or LCS, class. Ships in the class are small, agile vessels meant for operating in near-shore environments. The LCS program was initiated in 2002.

The LCS class has two variants — Freedom and Independence, each of which is built by a different industry team. Lockheed Martin leads the construction of Freedom-variant ships, while Austal USA heads the building of Independence-variant ships.

The USS Nantucket (LCS-27) is the 14th Freedom-variant LCS commissioned by the U.S. Navy, and the third Navy ship to bear the name Nantucket, according to a service press release issued Saturday.

Saturday’s ceremony featured several high-profile speakers, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, a Lockheed Martin executive and two Navy officials.

As the event’s master of ceremonies noted, the USS Nantucket stood “stern to stern” with the iconic USS Constitution, which is the nation’s oldest warship and now a museum in Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard.

Cmdr. Kari Yakubisin, commanding officer of the USS Nantucket (LCS 27) escorts Maura Healey, the governor of Massachusetts, into the commissioning ceremony for the USS Nantucket in Boston, Nov. 16, 2024. (EJ Hersom/U.S. Navy)

The crew of the newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Nantucket (LCS 27) brings the ship to life during its commissioning ceremony in Boston, Nov. 16, 2024. (EJ Hersom/U.S. Navy)

In his remarks, Lockheed Martin executive Paul Lemmo praised the innovation behind the ship and class. “This vessel represents a significant leap forward in technology,” he said, and is vital now that maritime threats are “more complex than ever.”

Both Lemmo and the press release highlighted the MK 70 Payload Delivery System, which was on the deck of the USS Nantucket during the ceremony and will be equipped on other LCS class ships.

During the week prior to the commissioning ceremony, the ship’s crew visited the Boston area as well as the ship’s namesake, Nantucket, Mass., according to an earlier Navy press release. The USS Nantucket’s sailors spent Veterans Day with local veterans at the New England Veterans Home and were able to learn more about Nantucket’s history, per the release.

The USS Nantucket will be homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Fla., Saturday’s release said.

The LCS program has been dogged by controversy throughout the years. In 2015 and 2016, several ships in the class broke down at sea, and the cost of the program has come to far exceed its initial estimates. A Government Accountability Office report from 2022 and a ProPublica investigation published last year have indicated the program overly relies on contractors — rather than the Navy’s own personnel — for maintenance on LCS ships.

In recent years the Navy has moved to address some of the issues, such as through expanding the role of Maintenance Execution Teams — sailors that can perform maintenance on the littoral combat ships in the place of contractors.

A live stream of Saturday’s ceremony can be viewed below.