Lockheed bags contract to build next LCS for US Navy

WASHINGTON (BNS): Lockheed Martin has bagged a $376 million contract from the US Navy to construct the seventh Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) for it.

The fixed-price-incentive-fee contract provides funding for the second of 10 such ships the Navy awarded to the Lockheed Martin team in December 2010. 

The contracts for the remaining eight ships will be awarded through 2015, Lockheed said.

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

Lockheed has already built the first LCS, USS Freedom, for the US Navy which was commissioned in 2008. The construction work for LCS 3, USS Fort Worth, is presently going on at full pace. The ship is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2012.

The US Navy intends to procure a total of 55 Littoral Combat Ships for multi-mission support. 

The LCS has been envisioned to be a versatile, networked, agile, surface combatant vessel capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals.