Article Posted on : - Sep 09, 2010

Lockheed giving shape to 3rd Littoral Combat Ship 'Fort Worth'.

MARINETTE, USA (BNS): Lockheed Martin has completed 60 percent work on the US Navy's third Littoral Combat Ship (LCS 3) ‘Fort Worth’.

The ship remains on schedule and on cost, and will be launched on December 4, 2010, Lockheed said.

The company achieved a key milestone recently when Fort Worth’s outfitted bow module was connected to the ship. Additionally, all of Fort Worth’s major equipment has been installed and 100 percent of its modules are under construction.

“The Lockheed Martin team remains on track to deliver Fort Worth to the US Navy in 2012,” Joe North, Lockheed Martin LCS programme manager, said.

Lockheed was awarded a fixed-price contract in March 2009 to design and build LCS 3.

The “new-breed” warship will be capable of open-ocean operations but optimized for littoral or coastal missions. The ship will be 378 feet in length, have a waterline beam of 57 feet, displace approximately 3,000 tons of water and will cruise at a speed in excess of 40 knots.

It will join LCS 1 USS Freedom (also built by Lockheed), and LCS 2 USS Independence.