The Lockheed Martin team was awarded the contract for Freedom (LCS 1) in December 2004, began construction of the ship in February and laid its keel on June 2, 2005.

September 23, 2006 The U.S. Navy christened PCU Freedom, the first littoral combat ship at 10 a.m. EDT, during a ceremony at Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, Wis. Birgit Smith served as the ship's sponsor. She is the widow of Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, who was killed in action in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. LCS 1 will be manned by one of two rotational crews, blue and gold, similar to the rotational crews assigned to Trident submarines. The crews will be augmented by one of three mission package crews during focused mission assignments. The blue crew CO is Cmdr. Donald Gabrielson and the gold is commanded by Cmdr. Michael P. Doran.

On April 25, 2007, a fire erupted at Marinette Marine, damaged the PCU Freedom and sustained significant damage. The ship was 80% completed.

May 2, 2008 Lockheed Martin and Marinette Marine Corp. successfully demonstrated April 25 the first "light-off" of one of Freedom's two main gas turbine propulsion engines in Marinette, Wis. Testing of the Rolls Royce MT-30 gas turbine engine is a significant step as the ship prepares for sea trials this summer.

July 28, The Pre-commissioning Unit Freedom departed first time for the ship's Builders Trials.

August 20, LCS 1 departed Marinette, Wisconsin, for acceptance trials on Lake Michigan.

September 18, Supervisor of Shipbuilding Gulf Coast officially accepted delivery of the Freedom on behalf of the Navy from the Lockheed Martin/Marinette Marine/Gibbs and Cox team in Marinette, Wis.

October 27, The Freedom arrived in Duluth, Minn., for a scheduled port visit.

November 8, USS Freedom is commissioned during a ceremony at Veterans Park, Milwaukee, Wis.

November 16, After visiting Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 13-15, the first litoral combat ship arrived in Buffalo, New York, for a brief port call, before continuing its voyage to NAB Little Creek for a year-long testing and evaluation.

November 21, LCS 1 departed Montreal, Quebec, after an overnight stop.

November 28, The litoral combat ship departed Quebec City after a week port call.

December 4, USS Freedom departed Halifax, Nova Scotia, after a three-day port visit.

December 5, The Freedom arrived in Boston, Mass., for a scheduled port call.

December 10, LCS 1 pulled to Annapolis, Md., for a visit to Naval Academy.

December 15, USS Freedom arrived in Norfolk Naval Station for post-delivery tests and sea trials. The ship will be primarily berthed at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek and will remain in Hampton Roads until early 2010, when will change its homeport to San Diego.

May 4, 2009 USS Freedom arrived in Alexandria, Va., for a scheduled port visit.

May 22, The litoral combat ship completed a second round of acceptance trials that featured a successful four-hour, full-power run and both surface and air detect-to-engagement demonstrations of the ship's combat management system.

June 8, LCS 1 arrived in Charleston, S.C., to enjoy a break from the testing and evaluation phase.

September 17, The Freedom is currently undergoing its post-delivery test and trials period after completing a two-month industrial post-delivery availability (IPDA) at Colonna's Shipyard in Norfolk on Sept. 8.

September 28, The litoral combat ship is underway in the Atlantic Ocean conducting flight deck certification.

November 12, USS Freedom (Blue), commanded by Cmdr. Kristy Doyle, pulled to Mayport Naval Station for a brief port visit, after a transit from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, before conducting independent ship training and certification for its upcoming maiden deployment. The U.S. Navy announced Oct. 13 the decision to deploy the Freedom in early 2010 to the Southern Command and Pacific Command areas ahead of her originally scheduled deployment in 2012.

November 21, LCS 1 returned to Mayport after a five days of integrated training with the Gold Crew. The Freedom will conduct additional system testing and training before it heads into its final Integrated/Advanced Phase training with the U.S. Coast Guard in January.

January 26, 2010 USS Freedom (Gold) pulled to Mayport Naval Station to begin final preparations for its maiden deployment next month. The litoral combat ship completed a Continuous Maintenance Availability at Colonna's Shipyard in mid-January.

February 8, The Freedom returned to Mayport after completing final pre-deployment training and certification.

February 16, USS Freedom (Gold) departed Naval Station Mayport for its first operational deployment in support of counter-illicit trafficking operations and theater security cooperation in the U.S. 4th Fleet Area of Responsibility. The ship will also change its homeport to San Diego.

February 22, LCS 1 achieved its first drug seizure when it disrupted a high-speed "go-fast" vessel and recovered quarter of a ton of cocaine.

March 3, USS Freedom intercepted and captured a high-speed "go-fast" vessel carrying 1.5 tons of cocaine.

March 8, The litoral combat ship arrived in Colon, Panama, for refueling and stores replenishment.

March 11, LCS 1 disrupted a high-speed "go-fast" vessel and recovered 4,680 pounds of cocaine.

March 19, The Freedom pulled to Cartagena, Columbia, to begin the first theater security cooperation (TSC) port visit. The ship departed Colon March 18.

March 25, USS Freedom pulled into Vasco Nunez de Balboa Naval Base for a scheduled port visit to Panama City after transiting the Panama Canal. During late February and early March, the Freedom operated out of Colon, Panama, and embarked members of the PPF during a series of CIT operations known as Operation Conjuntos.

March 31, LCS 1 achieved its fourth drug seizure when it disrupted a "go-fast" vessel with four suspects and recovered a ton of cocaine.

April 7, USS Freedom recorded another milestone after conducting integrated at-sea operations with USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) CSG, including the first ever refuling of litoral combat ship from an aircraft carrier.

April 10, The litoral combat ship arrived in Manzanillo, Mexico, for a scheduled port call.

April 23, USS Freedom arrived in its new homeport of Naval Base San Diego after a maiden two-month deployment.

In early May, the Freedom had to pull into General Dynamics-NASSCO shipyard for repairs when issues developed with a waterjet, which is part of the ship's propulsion system.

June 16, USS Freedom (Blue) departed San Diego for a three-month underway period in support of exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2010.

June 24, LCS 1 pulled into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, to take part in the first phase of 22nd RIMPAC.

July 31, Cmdr. James Edwards relieved Cmdr. Kris Doyle as CO of USS Freedom (Blue) during a change-of-command ceremony aboard the ship at Pearl Harbor.

September 14, The Freedom is currently conducting the first major Pacific Fleet ordnance operation for an LCS-class vessel at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Calif.

September 23, During the operations off the coast of southern California, Sept. 12, the turbine blading had broken off and damaged the starboard-side Rolls-Royce MT30 engine. The ship returned to port using its diesel engines. The LCS-class ships will carry equipment, during the deployments, to change the engines, although the Freedom wasn’t yet carrying that gear when the engine was disabled. The broken one will be replaced at Naval Surface Warfare Center in Port Hueneme. USS Freedom was already scheduled to go to Port Hueneme, Calif., in late September to carry out handling exercises and tests of its mission modules.

The Northrop Grumman Corporation-built MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) achieved a significant development milestone when it flew its first test flights from the USS Freedom, off the coast of southern California, Nov. 13-24.

February 11, 2011 Cmdr. Matthew Weber relieved Cmdr. James R. Garner as CO of USS Freedom (Gold).

March 18, A 6-inch crack in the Freedom's hull, three and a half feet below the waterline in a weld seam between two steel plates, caused the ship to abort sea-keeping trials in mid-February and return to San Diego. Repairs were completed March 12, after a cofferdam was built and installed around the crack, during the scheduled repair period.

April 15, USS Freedom (Gold) recently departed San Diego for a shakedown cruise off the coast of southern California.

June 7, The litoral combat ship is currently off the West Coast conducting routine training.

June 11, USS Freedom departed homeport for a Friends and Family Day Cruise.

June 27, LCS 1 entered the dry-dock at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair facility for a three-month, $1.8 million worth, regularly scheduled maintenance.

February 1, 2012 The Freedom suffered a failure of the port shaft mechanical seal during sea trials off the coast of southern California.