By Geoff Fein
With its first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) delivered to the Navy and underway, Lockheed Martin [LMT] and its partner Marinette Marine are constructing the Fort Worth (LCS-3), and keeping the ship on schedule for her 2012 delivery, according to a company official.
“We are now about 34 percent complete. We continue to march forward on cost and on schedule with that ship,” Paul Lemmo, business development director for Lockheed Martin, told Defense Daily earlier this week.
Basically every piece of the ship is now under construction, he added.
“All the major equipment is installed, and as we said back in January, we projected this ship would take about 30 percent less labor costs and we are on track for that as well,” Lemmo said.
The big difference between construction of the USS Freedom (LCS-1) and Fort Worth, Lemmo noted, is that the team is building the ship in sequence.
A number of problems, including issues with the ship’s reduction gears, led to Freedom being built out of sequence, he said.
With those problems now in the past, Marinette Marine, which was recently bought by Italian defense company Fincantieri, has been able to build Fort Worth in sequence.
Marinette Marine has a long history of building ships in a modular fashion, Lemmo said.
“Their objective is to always pre-outfit the modules, up to the 85 to 90 percent level, and they are achieving that,” he said. “If you went into one of their buildings and saw the bridge module you would see all the equipment installed, you’d see piping and cabling and even some of the equipment would be lit off in its own module.”
When Fort Worth launches later this year, she will be very complete at that point, Lemmo said. “Our objective is to have her, at launch, about 85 percent complete.”
Fort Worth is planned to go to trials in 2011 and deliver to the Navy in 2012, he added.
Besides the construction process, there will be one other noticeable difference between Freedom and Fort Worth. LCS-3 won’t be outfitted with external aft tanks to improve the vessel’s stability.
The ship will have a longer underwater hull body and that will provide additional buoyancy, according to the Navy (Defense Daily, Jan. 25).
Because Freedom came in heavier than expected, the Navy understood it would have to make modifications to the ship and subsequent Lockheed Martin designs to meet the Navy’s stability requirements, the Navy said.
Those tanks were placed on either side of the steel door, projecting the aft six to eight feet, according to the Navy (Defense Daily, Jan. 25).
Those tanks help Freedom meet the Navy’s damage stability requirements. The Navy couldn’t get Freedom into the construction line, so external tanks had to be installed, the Navy said.
Fort Worth won’t need those tanks because Lockheed Martin and Marinette Marine are lengthening the hull about four meters, Lemmo said.
“It is very important for the record,” he added. “This is a modification that, had we had the time, we would have built it into Freedom. We just didn’t have the time.”
Extending the hull was actually something Lockheed Martin thought of incorporating a long time ago but didn’t think it needed, Lemmo said.
“Basically what we are doing, we are lengthening the hull about four meters. That pushes those [two aft board water] jets back. The only thing there will be will be a plate that connects it,” he said. “It has the effect of lengthening the underwater hull a little bit. It is a very simple change.”
The extension will give the ship more buoyancy, which will also provide more range and speed, Lemmo said.
Freedom, he added, still meets all of the speed and range requirements.
“On LCS-3, this is an added bonus that will get even more range and speed, but she already meets [the requirements],” Lemmo added.