Lockheed Martin [LMT] believes international interest in the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships is growing and could amount to foreign sales of at least 50 of the vessels over the next decade, a company executive said ahead of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space exposition this week.
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Lockheed Martin says its Littoral Combat Ship is generating international interest. Photo: Lockheed Martin
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Doug Laurendeau, Lockheed Martin’s director of international business development for ship and aviation systems, told reporters that the stability of the LCS program has attracted foreign interest along with its ability to be outfitted for a variety of missions.
“Potential is a number that we can take some license with because you have to go then qualify the opportunities,” Laurendeau said. “But the market potential we’ve seen, in terms of realistic opportunities that are out there …, it’s in excess of 50.”
Lockheed Martin builds the Freedom variant of the LCS for the Navy with subcontract Marinette Marine, while Austal USA builds the Independence version.
Laurendeau would not identify countries that Lockheed Martin has been in discussions with about the LCS, but he said most have expressed interest in using the ship for a number of missions or combinations of mission sets.
However, there has been no desire for the swappable mission packages the U.S. Navy is procuring for three separate missions: anti-surface warfare (SuW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and mine counter measures (MCM), he said.
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Fore on the USS Forth Worth (LCS-3). Photo: Defense Daily
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Instead, the international interest is focused on fixed mission packages with some flexibility for “roll-on roll-off” capabilities, he said.
That would include varying degrees SuW, ASW and MCM missions with heightened interest in anti-air warfare beyond the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) that is being installed on the Navy vessels, he said. That interest could involve the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), Laurendeau said.
Some countries have expressed interest in deploying the MH-60R Romeo helicopters on the Littoral Combat Ships for executing ASW missions, and international sales of the LCS could be aligned with sales of the MH-60R, he said. The U.S. Navy already plans to fly MG-60s off LCSs.
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Romeo program along with partner Sikorsky, a division of United Technologies [UTX].