The builder trials for the third of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS-3) have been successfully completed and the USS Fort Worth is on schedule for delivery to the Navy next year, Lockheed Martin [LMT] said yesterday.
The operational testing of the ship’s propulsion, communications, navigation and mission systems took place over a month in-dock and at sea in the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The Fort Worth underwent maneuverability tests, high speed runs, rescue boat launch and recovery and tracking exercises during the trials that ended on Saturday.
“Successful completion of builder’s sea trials means we are on track for the Navy’s acceptance trials, putting us a big step closer to getting the Navy the ships it needs,” Joe North, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of littoral ship systems, said.
Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor Freedom variant of the Littoral Combat Ship and is partnered with Marinette Marine Corporation. General Dynamics [GD] is the lead for the team building the Independence variant.
The Fort Worth will be ported in San Diego following delivery. It is 96 percent complete, Lockheed Martin said. The team began construction on LCS-5, what will be known as the USS Milwaukee, in August and keel is set to be laid on Thursday.
The initial shipbuilding effort on the LCS program was plagued with cost overruns and delays, but the Navy is now confident that it has been able to rein in those problems.
Rear Adm. James Murdoch, the program’s executive officer, said last week he expects the Fort Worth and the USS Coronado (LCS-4) to come in on time and on budget (Defense Daily, Oct 21). The General Dynamics Coronado will be launched in the next couple of months, he said.
Murdoch said in said in the tight fiscal environment and greater scrutiny of shipbuilding programs, it was critical was keep costs under control.
“We’ve already taken that step…to get the ship pricing down as low as we can,” he said at the media roundtable at the Washington Navy Yard.
“What the Navy has to do first and foremost to maintain (the) confidence (of) Congress and with the taxpayer is to demonstrate that we can get better and better and better on the cost,” he added.
The Navy is getting “very good pricing” for future ships, Murdoch said, noting the recently awarded contracts for LCS-7 and LCS-8 came in well below a congressional cost cap.