The Navy has asked the shipbuilding industry and other suppliers to offer input on possible new or existing ship designs that could also include modifying the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to meet the requirement for a future small surface combatant.
The release of the two formal requests for information, also known as RFIs, on Wednesday came after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel earlier this year scaled back the Navy’s plans to buy 52 LCSs to 32, saying the littoral vessels may not be adequately survivable in future combat environments. He instructed the Navy to look at alternatives for the remaining 20 ships under the small surface combatant requirement.
John Burrow, the executive director of Marine Corps Systems Command named to head the Navy’s task force leading the review due for completion by July 31, said industry is being asked to look at a broad range of possible designs and capabilities for the follow-on to the LCS. The Navy wants to reach a conclusion in time for the fiscal 2016 budget process.
“We want to collect their ideas and thoughts because they certainly have been pretty good about sharing those and we need to understand them,” Burrow told a handful of reporters Wednesday. “Second, it will give us a better idea, I think, of what is technically feasible in the timeframes that we are talking about, and third it will give our team a good idea of what the risks are and to understand the cost associated with the systems and concepts they are going to be providing to us.”
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first RFI will cover the ship design while the second is seeking information on systems such as combat systems and their integration into the vessel. He said the Navy is also open to reviewing foreign designs as well. The task force is developing a “pretty good number” of “capability concepts” the Navy wants addressed in the RFIs.
“Capability concepts are mission and capability alternatives for a small surface combatant combined with the (concept of operations) associated with those,” Burrow said.
The main capabilities the task force is looking at are air, surface and undersea warfare along with mine countermeasures, he said, as well as speed, range and endurance.
“There will be multiple capability concepts that give, really, a range of mission and capability options based on the threat environment and gaps that they’ve looked at,” Burrow said. “That will drive the design work and the design work will drive the cost.”
The Independence and Freedom variants of the LCS utilize a modular design to accommodate swappable mission packages for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures. They have limited air defense capability, and are dependent on larger vessels like cruisers and destroyers for protection from significant air threats.
Burrow said the Navy will also hold workshops with fleet personnel in Norfolk, Va., and Hawaii in May to get feedback into the process.
“We are going to solicit their feedback and ideas on missions and capabilities for small surface combatants,” he said.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] along with partner Marinette Marine is building the Freedom variant of the LCS, while Austal USA produces the Independence variant. Other companies that could show interest in the RFIs are General Dynamics [GD] and Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII].