BATH, Me., 9 Dec. 2006. U.S. Navy leaders are ordering an additional Littoral Combat Ship for tasks such as anti-submarine warfare, counter-mine operations, and maritime surveillance missions under terms of a $208.1 million contract awarded Dec. 8 to Bath Iron Works in Bath, Me.
The ship order, which is a modification to a previously awarded contract (number N00024-03-C-2310), is to build one Flight 0 Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) -- agile, and high-speed surface combatant with versatile warfighting capabilities optimized for littoral missions.
The LCS will be able to deploy a wide variety of sensors for antisubmarine and countermine warfare from several flying, floating, and submersible manned and unmanned vehicles, as well as use conventional submarine- and minehunting systems to keep sensitive coastlines open for U.S. military operations.
The Navy is buying the LCS from two separate contractor teams -- the Lockheed Martin Corp. LCS team in Baltimore, which is designing a high-speed semiplaning monohull vessel, and the General Dynamics Bath Ironworks LCS team in Bath, Maine, which is designing a high-speed trimaran with a slender stabilized monohull.
Work on this latest contract will be in Mobile, Ala. (55 percent); Pittsfield, Mass. (24 percent); and Bath, Maine (21 percent), and is to be finished by August 2009. Awarding the contract was Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.
