Lockheed Martin Receives $376 Million to Construct Nation’s Next Littoral Combat Ship

WASHINGTON | The U.S. Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led industry team $376 million to construct the nation’s seventh Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). 

The fixed-price-incentive-fee contract provides funding for the second of 10 ships the Navy awarded to the Lockheed Martin team in December 2010. The contracts for the remaining eight ships will be awarded through 2015. Marinette Marine Corporation, a Fincantieri company, will construct the ships in Marinette, Wis., and naval architect Gibbs & Cox will provide engineering and design support. 

“As the Lockheed Martin team constructs this next ship, we will remain focused on performance and cost,” said Joe North, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Ship Systems business. “The Navy’s 10-ship award provides stability to this program, allowing industry to more efficiently meet the customer’s need for an affordable, multi-mission surface combatant.”

The Lockheed Martin industry team designed and constructed the nation’s first LCS, USS Freedom. USS Freedom was commissioned in 2008 and has sailed more than 50,000 nautical miles. Based at its homeport of San Diego, Calif., the ship completed a highly successful maiden deployment in 2010 and is now fully integrated into the fleet.

LCS 3, the Navy’s future USS Fort Worth and Lockheed Martin’s second LCS, is more than 85 percent complete and was christened and launched in December 2010 – a milestone reached just 20 months after contract award. The program remains on schedule and on budget for delivery to the Navy in 2012. 

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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.

Fiscal Year 2011 Littoral Combat Ship Contract Awards Announced

Contract modifications were issued to Lockheed Martin Corporation and Austal USA March 17, under their respective Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) block buy contracts to add funding for construction of one fiscal year 2011 Littoral Combat Ship each.

This is the second ship fully funded for each contractor under its previously-awarded, fixed-price incentive "block buy" contract for the design and construction of up to ten LCS Flight 0+ ships. The two block buy contracts provide for the acquisition of a total of up to 20 LCS from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2015, subject to availability of appropriations.

The amount of funds added under the block buy contract with Lockheed Martin Corporation for the fiscal year 2011 LCS ship is $376,621,375. The amount of funds added under the block buy contract with Austal USA for the fiscal year 2011 LCS ship is $368,592,125.

The ships will be built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corporation in Marinette, Wis., and Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., respectively.

The prices for the fiscal year 2011 ships were determined based on the competitive, LCS dual block buy contracts that were awarded Dec. 29, 2010.

"The awards represent the Navy's commitment to driving down costs in the littoral combat ship program," said Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Sean Stackley. "We are executing the dual award strategy for these ships. Efforts to stabilize design, improve production planning, invest in shipbuilder improvements and leverage long-term vendor agreements all within the framework of a competitive fixed-price contract have returned this program to the level of affordability necessary for the Navy to move forward with construction at efficient rates in support of the 55-ship LCS requirement."

The additional funding obligated is for the seventh and eighth ships in the LCS class. USS Freedom (LCS 1) was delivered to the Navy September 2008 and is undergoing a continuous maintenance availability at its homeport of San Diego. USS Independence (LCS 2) was delivered to the Navy December 2009 and is currently undergoing test and trials in Mayport, Fla. Fort Worth (LCS 3) and Coronado (LCS 4) are under construction at Marinette Marine and Austal USA, respectively, and are expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2012.

LCS is needed to fill critical, urgent warfighting requirements gaps that exist today. LCS is required to establish and maintain U.S. Navy dominance in the littorals and sea lines of communication choke points around the world.

Critical review for electronic warfare system upgrade that will defend U.S. Navy

Lockheed Martin held a successful critical design review for an electronic warfare system upgrade that will defend U.S. Navy surface combatants from evolving anti-ship missile threats.

Under the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), the Navy is pursuing an evolutionary succession of enhancements to its AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare system currently installed on aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other U.S. warships. A series of SEWIP block upgrades will incrementally add new defensive technologies and functional capabilities.

“Block 2 establishes a framework for the Navy to easily integrate future block upgrades of the most current electronic warfare technology to defend the fleet,” explained Joe Ottaviano, Lockheed Martin’s SEWIP program director. “This critical milestone validates our design and serves as the contractual go-ahead to produce two system prototypes by 2012.”

Lockheed Martin’s modular solution for SEWIP Block 2 is based on its own Integrated Common Electronics Warfare System demonstrator, which operated over water for risk reduction in October 2010. This approach uses commercial-off-the-shelf electronics and provides the Navy with the latest surface ship electronic warfare capabilities, as well as enhanced flexibility to upgrade the technology to address emerging threats.

In November 2009, Lockheed Martin was awarded an initial $9.9 million contract to develop SEWIP Block 2 with options totaling nearly $167 million. In July 2010, the Navy exercised the first option for $51.1 million and approved Lockheed Martin’s preliminary design for Block 2.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 132,000 prople worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.

Lockheed Martin tops the SIPRI-2009 arms manufacturers rating

American companies dominate in the top ten largest arms manufacturers in 2009, reports Monday Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) having published the rating of the world's 100 largest military industrial companies as of 2009. 

American group of companies Lockheed Martin leads the list with annual income of $33.43 bln in 2009. 

SIPRI experts put British group BAE Systems at the second position with the sales of $33.25 bln. In the previous rating this company managed to hit the American competitor for the first time and head the SIPRI rating in 2008. 

Only three non-American companies entered the first top ten – mentioned above BAE Systems, transeuropean EADS (7th position) and Italian Finmeccanica (8th position). 

Judging by the rating published today in Stockholm, 78 out of 100 leading armament producers are located in the U.S. and Western Europe. Their overall income makes $368 bln which is 91.7% of all one hundred companies mentioned in the SIPRI rating as of 2009. 

Forty five companies are situated in the U.S. 

Generally, sales volume of the largest defense-oriented companies have grown on 8% comparing to 2008 ($14.8 bln more) and made $401 bln as of 2009. 

Commenting the published ratings, SIPRI expert Susan Jackson told to RIA Novosti that the list basically exhibits trends of the recent several years. 

According to her, modernization programs of national armed forces result in higher sales in corresponding spheres of engineering. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq imply continuing replacement of lost and damaged equipment, said the expert. She supposes that growing range of after-sale services offered by the companies also contributes to arms sales increase. 

Among 100 world's largest arms manufacturers, SIPRI experts named six Russian companies. 

Russian company Almaz-Antei happened in the top twenty in the previous rating, now has shifted from 18th position to the 23rd one – just to the same level as in 2007. 

Also, the SIPRI rating 2009 includes such Russian corporations as Tactical Missiles (66th position),Helicopters of Russia (73rd position), Uralvagonzavod (76th position). The Stockholm experts added two other Russian companies – United Aircraft Corporation and United Engine Corporation which were established as a result of recent reorganizations in Russian defense industry. 

According to Mrs. Jackson, information on business activities of the latter two companies in 2009 is known, but SIPRI do not draw any conclusions about these corporations due to lack of the previous financial records. Besides, statistics of Russian companies in 2009 are generally hard to analyze in US currency because of US dollar's weak positions. 

SIPRI created military industry database in 1989 which contains financial and employment information of companies dealing with arms production in OECD members and developing states except for China. Since 1990 statistics on arms manufacturers is included into SIPRI Yearbook; the coming issue will be published in Stockholm in June 2011. 

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) was established in 1966 in honor of 150th anniversary of peace in Swedish land.