Rather than selecting one team to build 10 ships, the Navy will instead award construction contracts to both Lockheed Martin and Austal USA. Lockheed's Freedom is on the left, Austal's Independence is on the right. // Navy
Yesterday, in-house heavy hitter Chris Cavas broke the news that both Lockheed Martin and Austal USA have been waiting for all year, and both companies can be happy with it.
After a year-long wait, the Navy will ask congress for permission to award both companies 10 LCS hulls. The service’s leadership thinks competition between the companies has driven down the program’s costs. Cavas writes:
Under the new proposal, the Navy would split its buy equally each year between Lockheed and Austal USA. Two ships would be awarded under the 2010 budget and two in 2011, with four ships year each from 2012 through 2015. One key issue that will be put off appears to be the choice of combat system. Each team created its own system, with virtually no commonality between the two types. Under the new proposal, each team would continue to build ships with their original combat systems.
Read our full coverage here.
5 Comments
So which class goes to San Diego and which will be in Mayport?
And…The Loser Is!
The taxpayer saddled with continuing to pay for this abomination of a program, which will only serve to weaken a diminished fleet.
And the sailor unlucky enough to have to take one of these (NON)warships into Harm’s Way….
The Navy should reconsider the whole LCS concept and build Corvettes like the Germans are which are half the size and have a better weapons suite.
So please explain to me Mr CNO how two wrongs make a right, or has your political correctness taken you over the edge so far that you can’t make a rational decision (cancel the program) and thus you declare that “everyone is a winner in today’s Navy?”
Mr CNO we need WARSHIPS not fast yachts!
I took a quick informal poll over the last few days with SWOS instructors, students and serving line blackshoes who were on a shore tour. None of them see the value of buying LCS alone, never mind both designs. It’s a political pushdown to preserve the few combatant shipyards left in the nation, and a terrible choice in force structure. Let’s hope the sailors don’t have to pay the price for an inadequate weapons system…