The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a relatively inexpensive Navy surface combatant equipped with modular 'plug-and-fight' mission packages for countering mines, small boats, and diesel-electric submarines, particularly in littoral waters. Navy plans call for fielding a total force of 52 LCSs. Twelve LCSs were funded from FY2005 through FY2012. Another four (LCSs 13 through 16) were funded in FY2013, although funding for those four ships has been reduced by the March 1, 2013, sequester on FY2013 funding. The Navy's proposed FY2014 budget requests $1,793.0 million for four more LCSs (LCSs 17 through 20), or an average of about $448 million per ship. Two very different LCS designs are being built. One was developed by an industry team led by Lockheed; the other was developed by an industry team led by General Dynamics. The Lockheed design is built at the Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, WI; the General Dynamics design is built at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, AL. LCSs 1, 3, 5, etc. are Marinette Marine-built ships; LCSs 2, 4, 6, etc. are Austal-built ships. The 20 LCSs procured or scheduled for procurement in FY2010-FY2015 (LCSs 5 through 24) are being procured under a pair of 10-ship, fixed-price incentive (FPI) block buy contracts that the Navy awarded to Lockheed and Austal USA on December 29, 2010. The LCS program has become controversial due to cost growth, design and construction issues with the lead ships built to each design, concerns over the ships' ability to withstand battle damage, and concerns over whether the ships are sufficiently armed and will be able to perform their stated missions effectively. Some observers, citing one or more of these issues, have proposed truncating the LCS program to either 24 ships (i.e., stopping procurement after procuring all the ships covered under the two block buy contracts) or to some other number well short of 52. Other observers have proposed down selecting to a single LCS design after the 24th ship.


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    Titel :

    Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Background and Issues for Congress


    Beteiligte:
    R. O'Rourke (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2013


    Format / Umfang :

    85 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch