Lockheed win contract littorally

The US Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led team nearly $198 million for construction of the Navy’s third Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). This is the second LCS awarded to the Lockheed Martin team.

The team will begin construction in the first quarter of 2007 at Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana. The ship will be delivered to the US Navy in 2009.

Freedom, the nation’s first LCS, is currently under construction in Wisconsin. The Lockheed team was awarded the contract for Freedom in December 2004, began construction of the ship in February 2005 and laid its keel in June 2005. The ship will be named this autumn and delivered to the US Navy in 2007.

The Lockheed Martin team design for LCS is a resilient, semi-planing manoeuvrable steel monohull, with proven sea-keeping characteristics, designed to support launch and recovery operations. The LCS will be the first surface combatant to be classed under the new Naval Vessel Rules by the American Bureau of Shipping.