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Science & Technology
DoD Announces Littoral Ships Contract
2010-12-30
The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal USA each a fixed-price incentive contract for the design and construction of a 10 ship block-buy, for a total of 20 littoral combat ships from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2015.

The Navy remains committed to a 55-ship program and the LCS is needed to fill critical, urgent warfighting requirements gaps that exist today. The LCS Program is required to establish and maintain U.S. Navy dominance in the littorals and sea lanes of communication choke points around the world. The LCS Program operational requirements have been virtually unchanged since the program's inception in 2002 and the both hull forms will meet the Navy's operational warfighting requirements.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#11  Worse, the trimaran's hull is also aluminum. Aluminum, besides melting, also cracks under repeated stress.
Posted by: Uleanter Barnsmell1073   2010-12-30 23:36  

#10  Nice aluminum superstructure Purple Heart Box in the pic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2010-12-30 20:56  

#9  That does explain a lot. Let's hope the warrior admirals get enough time to rebuild the navy they inherit from the appropriation admirals before we lose the next big war at sea.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-12-30 18:18  

#8  Congressional approval is required for all flag rank promotions, NS.
Posted by: lotp   2010-12-30 16:32  

#7  Now how do we fix all the fubar admirals?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-12-30 15:44  

#6  So, was the navy unable to figure out if one design was better than the other?

They were. The Austal design is better, and it lost the political contest, so if they only bought one design, Congress was going to give them the turkey from Wisconsin.

There are problems with both designs, but the Austal design has more margin for fixing them.

Politically this is the only way they get half a batch of ships that can be fixed.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2010-12-30 14:10  

#5  ... and they picked the ugly one again! Sailors!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2010-12-30 13:59  

#4  Sole source gets you a preferential entrypoint and negotiable extention options.

Single source prescribes program delays, shortcut engineering, schedule/budget overruns and inflated maintenance costs.

Competitive procurement allows you to take the best from each and play price against the market.
Posted by: Skidmark   2010-12-30 12:40  

#3   I suspect they are letting these contracts this way because our shipbuilding has become so thin if they don't,one yard goes belly up and to see that happen might actually imperil our safety in the looming decades.

Posted by: Muggsy Hupimp8294   2010-12-30 09:30  

#2  D *** NG IT, PRAVDA may know why...

To wit,

* PRAVDA > THREE GIANT SPACESHIPS TO ATTACK EARTH IN 2012.

NOT counting any 1990's or post-911 Russia-discovered SPACE ROCKS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-12-30 01:12  

#1  So, was the navy unable to figure out if one design was better than the other? There was a implied competition between the two designs. If each gets half of the order is the economy of scale on the price maxed out?
Is any one company unable to build 20 hulls in 5 years? It seems the Navy wants these operational asap. Do the two types fill different requirements? Did the surface warfare guys get blown away by both ships or do they want avoid putting all bets on one type or contractor?
Any back story here?
Posted by: Dogsbody   2010-12-30 01:12  

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