The third vessel in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program is moving closer to delivery to the Navy following completion this week of the second round of builder’s trials, the Navy said.
The Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built Fort Worth (LCS-3) completed two says of trials on Wednesday in Marinette, Wisconsin and is expected to go into acceptance trials at the end of this month, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) said.
Lockheed Martin partner Marinette Marine Corp. conducted the tests to gauge the performance of the propulsion plant, ship handling and auxiliary systems.
The Navy has contracted construction on 24 of the ships, split evenly between the Lockheed Martin team and Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. The program got off to a rocky start with cost overruns and delays on the first two ships of the class.
Rear Adm. James Murdoch, the program executive officer, recently said those problems have since been curtailed and he expects the ships to be coming in on time and budget. He told Defense Daily in a recent interview that delivery of the Austal USA-built Coronado (LCS-4) had to be pushed back to early next year to mitigate cost risk.