By Geoff Fein
The Navy on Monday issued its long awaited revised request for proposal (RFP) for two Flight 0+ Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to be procured in FY ’09.
The RFPs, sent to both Lockheed Martin [LMT] and General Dynamics [GD], were not available to the public.
“Release of the amended RFP to the two prime contractors represents the continued execution of the approved LCS acquisition strategy,” Lt. Clayton Doss, a Navy spokesman, said. “We are working expeditiously to award the FY ’09 contracts on or before January 2009.”
The Navy amended its acquisition plan for LCS following Congress’ decision to pull funding for the lone FY ’08 ship, leaving two ships in FY ’09.
In October, President Bush signed the FY ’09 defense appropriations bill that included $1.02 billion for two LCS in FY ’09, but cut $337 million for the lone FY ’08 ship. Additionally, the bill lifted the cost cap on the two FY ’09 ships (Defense Daily, Oct. 17).
Due to the change in funding, the Navy amended the current LCS seaframe construction solicitation to remove the FY ’08 ship and add three FY ’10 ships, procuring a total of five ships, two in FY ’09 and three in FY ’10, according to Doss.
“This amended solicitation will continue the limited competition between the two incumbent industry teams,” he said. “The Navy intends to award one ship to each industry team in FY ’09 and hold a concurrent competition for quantity in FY ’10.”
The FY ’09 awards will be for fixed-price incentive (FPI) type contracts. However, the ships will not be constrained by previously imposed cost caps.
In May 2008, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics submitted bids to build the next three ships of the LCS class. That solicitation called for one ship in FY ’08 and two in FY ’09. However, according to sources, the $460 million congressional cost cap impacted the designs the two industry teams submitted. Additionally, both shipbuilders had to submit bids on LCS-5 through -7 that not only included the cost caps, but bound the companies to fixed-price contracts (Defense Daily, July 30).
Sources said both teams turned in bids that reflected what could be built under the cap. Those bids, according to sources, lacked gun and combat systems, among other things (Defense Daily, Oct. 17).
The Navy had previously attempted to get both Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics to sign onto new FPIs for LCS-2 and -3, respectively. But neither the Navy nor the two teams could reach an agreement, so the second ships for both companies were killed. The FY ’09 ships will be the first ships contracted since the Navy terminated contracts in 2007 (Defense Daily, October 22).
The FY ’09 ship prices will be included with the FY ’10 ship prices in evaluating this competition, Doss said.
“Affordability remains a key tenet of the LCS program as the Navy works with industry to provide the greatest capability for the lowest cost,” Doss said.
However unlike the FY ’09 ships, the cost cap will apply to the three FY ’10 ships.
The new acquisition plan also delays a proposed 2010 fly-off between the two LCS designs. (Defense Daily, Oct. 22).
The FY ’09 and FY ’10 ships will be designated as Flight 0+ and will include existing approved engineering changes along with improvements to construction or fabrication procedures, Doss said.
Lockheed Martin is partnered with Marinette Marine [MTW], Bollinger Shipyards, naval architects Gibbs & Cox, DRS Technologies [DRS], Rolls-Royce and Fincantieri. The team delivered Freedom (LCS-1) to the Navy on Sept. 18. Freedom will be commissioned Nov. 8 in Milwaukee, Wis.
General Dynamics is teamed with Austal USA, BAE Systems, L-3 Communications [LLL], Maritime Applied Physics Corp., and Northrop Grumman [NOC]. Independence (LCS-2) was christened on Oct. 4.