Austal USA president resigns, search for shipbuilder’s new leader to begin
“Rusty made a lasting impact on the company,” Austal Limited Chief Executive Officer Paddy Gregg said of Rusty Murdaugh.
Cost, schedule for Coast Guard’s new cutter is sailing off course: GAO
The watchdog found the program's cost has increased 40 percent over the past 10 years, and accumulated a year-and-a-half delay on the first four vessels.
Austal Or Lockheed Gets 3rd LCS In 2017? Navy Says There IS A Plan…
Austal’s Alabama shipyard just got the first Littoral Combat Ship contract of 2017, an award of up to $548 million to build an Independence-class all-aluminum trimaran, the as-yet unnamed LCS-28. Lockheed Martin, which builds the steel-hulled Freedom-class LCS with Wisconsin shipyard Marinette Marine, is still in negotiations with the government, a Lockheed spokesman told me. […]
More Maintenance $$ Gets Navy To 355 Ships Sooner: NAVSEA
WASHINGTON: More money for maintenance would allow Navy ships to stay in service longer, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command said today, and accelerate the fleet’s growth to the Trump Administration’s avowed goal of 355 ships by “10 to 15 years with a relatively small investment.” The Navy’s current long-term plan assumes most warships […]
OMB ‘Supports’ Extra LCS, But Where’s The Money?
UPDATE: Source Says WH Will Fund LCS Add; CRS Naval Expert Comments CAPITOL HILL: In a startling turnabout, the Trump Administration now “supports” adding a $541 million Littoral Combat Ship to yesterday’s 2018 budget request, Navy officials told Congress this afternoon. What, exactly, does that mean? The Navy doesn’t know. Minutes before Navy witnesses were to testify […]
SASC Will ‘Help’ Trump On Navy’s 355-Ship Fleet: Sen. Wicker
CAPITOL HILL: Presidents propose; Congress disposes. President Trump’s shipbuilding budget for 2018 is a placeholder that legislators can increase, the chairman of the Senate seapower subcommittee told me this morning. After Sen. Roger Wicker chaired a hearing with shipbuilding executives, following a classified hearing with Navy leaders, I asked him about Trump’s budget. Despite Trump’s […]
Beyond LCS: Navy Looks To Foreign Frigates, National Security Cutter
[UPDATED with Sec. Stackley comments] WASHINGTON: The Navy is seriously considering derivatives of foreign designs and the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter for its new frigate, after three years pursuing an upgraded version of its current Littoral Combat Ship. The shift has shaken up the industry, panicking some players, while others quietly reposition: Wisconsin’s Marinette Marine, […]
Key SAC-D, SASC Senators Push More LCS
WASHINGTON: Eight senators sent a letter Friday to Defense Secretary James Mattis, urging him to request all three Littoral Combat Ships originally planned for the 2018 budget. While eight percent of the Senate may seem small, the bipartisan co-signers — four Republicans, four Democrats — include five members of the appropriating and authorizing and committees for […]
LCS Frigate: Delay A Year To Study Bigger Missiles?
UPDATED with Clark comment on shipyards WASHINGTON: The Navy needs to delay a year before awarding the roughly $9 billion contract for the upgraded frigate version of the Littoral Combat Ship, because it needs more time to thrash out cost estimates and detailed designs, says congressional watchdog GAO. The Government Accountability Office has said this before, […]
Austal Pushes Big Missiles For Small Ships: LCS & VLS
NATIONAL HARBOR: How much firepower can fit on the Navy’s smallest warship? With the Chinese and Russian navies on the rise, American admirals want more “distributed lethality” from everything in the fleet, especially the controversial Littoral Combat Ship. Here at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference, the manufacturers of the two very different versions of […]
LCS Frigate Block Buy Battle: Should Navy Buy Upgraded Ships Wholesale?
WASHINGTON: Should the Navy buy the next generation of Littoral Combat Ships in bulk? A contentious hearing today before House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight largely framed the options as polar opposites. You can either sign a multi-ship deal to drive down the price, at the risk of getting “locked in” to buying a flawed […]
Storm-Tossed: The Controversial Littoral Combat Ship (Breaking Defense eBook)
Breaking Defense launches its first eBook, collecting our best coverage of the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship.
LCS Troubles May Stem From Double Engine
After two years of embarrassing breakdowns in both variants of the embattled Navy Littoral Combat Ship, there are worrying signs that a reliability problem is built into the design. At issue: the unhappy combination of an unusually small crew struggling with a uniquely complex propulsion system, one that yokes gas turbines and diesel engines together. […]
Navy Wants LCS ‘Frigate’ Upgrade A Year Earlier: 2018, Not 2019
NATIONAL HARBOR: The Navy wants to start building the upgraded “frigate” version of its controversial Littoral Combat Ship a year earlier, the frigate program manager said. The fixed-price, winner-take-all competition will “tentatively” happen in 2018 instead of 2019. To make that earlier date, Capt. Dan Brintzinghoffer said at the Sea-Air-Space conference here, the Navy will […]