150428-N-IK337-114 PACIFIC OCEAN - The Littoral Combat Ship USS Freedom comes alongside USS John C. Stennis. U.S. Navy ships are underway conducting an Independent Deployer Certification Exercise off the coast of Southern California. The exercise provides a multi-ship environment to train and certify independent deployers in surface warfare, air defense, maritime-interception operations, command and control/information warfare, command, control, computers and combat systems intelligence and mine warfare.