Navy Ship Trapped in Canada

The U.S. Navy’s Newest Ship Is Trapped in Canada

Fast-moving ice trapped the USS Little Rock in Canada, possibly until March.

By Kyle Mizokami

U.S. NAVY PHOTO

The U.S. Navy’s latest ship, the USS Little Rock, is trapped in Montreal. Thanks to fast-moving ice, a short stay in Canada could last as long as four months until the ice melts and allows the Little Rock to join the rest of the Navy at sea.


The USS Little Rock is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin. Designed to operate off coastlines and in shallow water, littoral combat ships can carry out anti-submarine, anti-mine, anti-surface, and amphibious warfare missions. Little Rock and her sister ships are small, fast, and agile.

Unfortunately for the crew, the ship was not agile enough to escape the rapidly advancing winter ice. Commissioned in Buffalo, New York on December 16, the ship stopped in Montreal for a routine visit before heading for the East Coast via the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Once in Montreal, a “historic” cold snap caused sea ice to form faster than expected along the seaway, which authorities promptly closed for the season. According to Weather.com, the percentage of the Great Lakes covered in ice increased from three percent on Christmas Eve to 30 percent by January 6.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is the only way in and out of the Great Lakes to the open ocean, and it typically stays closed until March. The Navy has accepted that the 389-foot long, 3,400-ton Little Rock won’t be able to get under way to her home port of Mayport, Florida until the seaway reopens.

In the meantime, Little Rock is safe where it is. Heaters and de-icers are preventing an accumulation of ice on her hull, and the Navy has furnished the crew with cold weather gear. The Navy is making the best of the situation by filling the crew's hours with busy work, a spokesman telling USNI News the crew will focus on “training, readiness, and certifications”.

In related news, the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships are finally getting anti-surface missiles. A mere decade after the Non Line of Sight-Launch-System (NLOS-LS) missile system was cancelled, leaving the Littoral Combat Ships without a key weapon system for engaging small ships and helicopters, the Navy has settled on a replacement weapon. According to Warrior Maven, the Navy will equip LCS ships with the U.S. Army’s Longbow Hellfire missile system.

Longbow Hellfire was designed to be launched for Apache attack helicopters against tanks and armored vehicles. The 100-lb. missile is armed with either a high explosive anti-tank or blast fragmentation warhead and has a range of five miles, versus the 25 miles of NLOS. The news comes just as the U.S. Army and Marine Corps report progress in their work to replace Hellfire with the new Joint Air Ground Missile.