USS Coronado (LCS-4) will be an Independence-class littoral combat ship. She will be the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after Coronado, California, home of a lot of retired navy brass who have a LOT of money. A contract was awarded to General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works in May 2009 for the construction of LCS-4.

Coronado will be the second LCS to feature a high-speed trimaran hull and will be designed to defeat littoral threats and provide access in coastal waters for missions such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. There are two different LCS hull forms – the Independence-class aluminum trimaran, and the Freedom-class semiplaning monohull designed and built by Lockheed Martin. These seaframes will be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called mission packages, which can be changed out quickly. Mission packages are supported by special detachments that will deploy manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors. Coronado will be built by Austal USA in Alabama.

The ship's keel was laid on December 17, 2009.

In October 2012, Susan Keith is scheduled to commission the USS Coronado just as her mother commissioned the previous ship of that name in 1966. 

I highly recommend visiting the Reference link for much more info on this interesting ship.

This is the second boxing of this ship type from Cyber-Hobby. The kit is not at all complex and can be built either as a waterline or full hulled version. A display stand is included. Photo etch is nicely done and covers the rear landing area and some of the rear weather decks. This one disposes of the SeaHawk sprue and provides one for the CH-53 and some drones.  A photo etch fret (not shown) is provided for some additional parts for these items as well as for the sled pulled by the SeaStallion. I'll let the Cyber-hobby PR listing provide more of the features.

- Newly tooled MH-53E
- Newly produced MK-105
- Detailed integrated ISR suite delicately represented
- Hull-side door can be assembled open/closed
- Hangar is hollow to allow accommodation of helicopter
- Dimensionally accurate flight deck represented in detail
- Photo-etched safety netting surrounds the flight deck
- Detailed flight deck includes signal lights
- Optional MK 41 launcher authentically produced
- True-to-scale SeaRAM including 11-cell launcher and Phalanx CIWS delicately represented
- Bow anchor correctly depicted
- Hangar door can be assembled open/closed
- Stern doors can be assembled open/closed
- Realistic life raft containers and brackets provided
- Waterline or full-hull version can be assembled
- Display stand included for display of full-hull version
- Delicate MQ-8 included
- Intricate trimaran hull consists of main hull and two outrigger hulls
- One-piece slide-molded superstructure accurately represented
- One-piece slide-molded lower hull w/both waterline & full-hull versions available

The instructions are well done and include markings for the single ship.

If you want something a bit unusual to add to your collection of 1/700 ships, then this is it. What makes it even more nice is that it looks like a pretty uncomplicated build. However, judging from my glacial ship building pace, I'll be lucky to finish it before the actual ship is launched!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Coronado_%28LCS-4%29  

May 2011

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com for the preview kit. Get yours at your favorite retailer.

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