By Geoff Fein
General Dynamics [GD] has notified the Navy it will be delaying the launch of the USS Independence (LCS-2) until April to complete work before the ship goes into the water, the service said.
Independence was originally to be launched from Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., next month.
“General Dynamics has informed the Navy that they intend to submit a request to revise the LCS-2 ship construction schedule that will shift the launch date,” Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a Navy spokesman, told Defense Daily yesterday. “The Navy has not yet formally received the request.”
The Navy will review the request before granting approval for General Dynamics to adjust the construction schedule, he added.
According to a source familiar with the program, delaying the launch allows the Navy and General Dynamics to continue and complete work to the ship that would actually be more costly if it was performed with the ship in the water.
“One should not interpret a delay in launch as a delay in the eventual delivery of the ship. Nor should it be automatically viewed as a negative event. One of the lessons learned from LCS-1 was that it probably went in the water too early,” the source said.
GD Wants To Finish Outfitting
General Dynamics wants to maximize the outfitting and completion of the ship before it goes in the water, Jim DeMartini, a General Dynamics spokesman, told Defense Daily yesterday. “We don’t want to launch [Independence] until we are absolutely ready to do so.”
In November, the Navy terminated General Dynamics’ second LCS (LCS-4), after failing to agree to contract modifications sought by the service because of cost growth on the company’s first ship, LCS-2 (Defense Daily, Nov. 2).
The move to terminate LCS-4 left the Navy with only two ships under contract: Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] USS Freedom (LCS-1) and General Dynamics’ Independence, both of which will be used to determine which company could end up building the fleet of 55 LCS.
Back in April when the Navy terminated Lockheed Martin’s second ship, LCS-3, service officials said the cost of the lead ship, LCS-1, built by Lockheed Martin at Marinette Marine [MTW] in Wisconsin, was in the range of $350 million to $375 million (Defense Daily, April 13). In November, the Navy declined to discuss the cost of General Dynamics’ ship, adding that the cost growth was 50 percent to 75 percent over the original $220 million (in FY ’05 dollars) price tag (Defense Daily, Nov. 2).
In May ’07, the Navy revised its cost caps for LCS-5 and -6, increasing them to $460 million apiece. Those cost caps are expected to increase again now that the Navy has two instead of six, LCS under construction.