The Naval Sea Systems Command on Thursday awarded Fincantieri Marinette Marine a $1.04 billion modification, exercising options for detail design and construction of two more
Constellation-class guided-missile frigates, FFG-66 and FFG-67.
51 percent of the work will be performed at the company’s Marinette, Wis., facility, with the rest spread throughout several locations in the U.S. The work is expected to be finished by April 2030. This covers the fifth and sixth ships in the class.
This award follows Navy confirmation that the first ship of the class, the future USS Constellation (FFG-62), is running up to three years late due to workforce issues as well as delays in completing ship design (Defense Daily, April 3).
During a Senate Armed Services hearing on May 16, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro argued the frigate was initially underbid, which has led to some of the current problems.
“Maybe if the Constellation, if that had not been underbid during the previous administration, and hadn’t been delayed from the very beginning, and they came in with a best value price for it, and the Navy had not accepted it back then, we’d be in a better place, with regards to the frigate, as well.”
In October 2020, a Congressional Budget Office report found the frigate program could cost 40 percent more than the Navy estimated and if the Navy estimate was correct, it would be the “least expensive surface combatant program of the past 50 years” (Defense Daily, Oct. 14, 2020).
At the time, CBO said some factors that support the Navy estimate is how the Italian FREMM parent design has been stable and in production for years, little new technology is being developed, and Fincantieri is experienced in building small surface combatants.
However, while the frigate’s design used to share about 85 percent commonality with the FREMM, it has been reported the commonality has dropped precipitously to 15 percent.
Fincantieri won the original frigate contract in April 2020. When the FY ‘21 budget request was released, then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget Rear Adm. Randy Crites said the Navy developed the frigate schedule while trying to not repeat lessons learned in moving too quickly on the Littoral Combat System (Defense Daily, April 30, 2020).