...and they're off!

Freedom, the Navy’s first littoral combat ship, will go operational early next year “to close urgent warfighting gaps,” with orders to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Central Command regions, officials announced Tuesday.

The ship’s maiden operational deployment originally was scheduled for 2012.

“Deploying LCS now is a big step forward in getting this ship where it needs to be – operating in the increasingly important littoral regions,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said in the statement. “We must deliver this critical capability to the warfighter now.”

I don't see a mention of a mission module here.

If it goes without a mission module - well - that would be pathetic. More at USNIBlog.