Article Posted on : - Dec 30, 2010

Littoral Combat Ship. A Lockheed Martin photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): The US Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin -led industry team a fixed-price-incentive-fee contract to construct up to 10 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).

The first of the 10 ships will be acquired in 2010, at a contract value of $437 million, and the rest via options through 2015. If all options are exercised, the total value of the ship construction portion of the contract will reach approximately $3.6 billion, a Lockheed Martin release said.

Marinette Marine Corporation, a Fincantieri company, will construct the ships and naval architect Gibbs & Cox will provide engineering and design support.

The Lockheed Martin industry team had designed and constructed the first LCS, USS Freedom. The ship successfully completed its first deployment earlier this year and also participated in the world’s largest maritime exercise, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, known as RIMPAC.

LCS 3, the Navy’s future USS Fort Worth and Lockheed Martin’s second LCS, is more than 80 percent complete and was recently christened and launched. The program remains on schedule and budget for delivery to the Navy in 2012.