The Navy’s frigate program has entered into the preliminary design phase, bringing the service one step closer to buying 20 upgunned Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) with improved survivability.
“We now have design baselines, and we’re going to enter into preliminary design,” Capt. Dan Brintzinghoffer, the Navy’s frigate program manager, said during a Thursday speech to the American Society of Naval Engineers. “The output of the preliminary design phase will be contract level design information so that the companies who would then be bidding on the 2019 construction contract…would have the information they would need.”
During the pre-preliminary design phase, the Navy proved that its intended design changes were feasible, he said. It will release a request for proposals to LCS prime contractors Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Austal [ASX] in late 2017 and award a contract in 2019 for the first two frigates, LCS 33 and LCS 34.
Brintzinghoffer said his goal was to make the new frigates as lethal and survivable as possible within technical and budgetary constraints. To increase the lethality of the ship, the service wants to add eight over-the-horizon missiles and the Hellfire Surface-to-Surface Missile Module. It also wants to equip the frigate with improved radar and electronic warfare systems, a SeaRAM Anti-Ship Missile Defense System, and a multi-function towed array/lightweight tow.
The service is still going through the process of deciding what systems will be integrated on which ship, as well as how it will acquire those, he said. It will need to hold a competition for an over the horizon missile, but Brintzinghoffer is waiting on Navy leadership to approve the acquisition strategies for other systems.
“In the next couple of months, we’ll have an understanding of laying those kinds of things out. … We know what we’re going to do, now we have to determine how we’re going to get it, and then that will determine when those competitions happen,” he said. “By next year, we have to be having the [over-the-horizon missile] competition, or else you can’t meet the requirements to deliver it to the ship.”
However, not all systems will need to be recompeted. The majority of LCS systems were provided through contractor furnished equipment, but a significant amount of the systems on the frigates will be government furnished equipment to maximize commonality and drive down lifecycle costs, he said. Another option is purchasing additional units of systems that were awarded a contract in an earlier competition.
“The key for us is to strike the balance between the performance of the system [and] the cost of the system. In some cases we’re going to change to something that’s more expensive,” Brintzinghoffer said. For example, LED lighting will be built into the frigates. While that initially is more expensive than commercial fluorescent lights, they will not need to be replaced as often—saving money over time and conserving space on the ship, which will not need to carry as many spares.
The Navy is also assessing whether it can cut costs on the combat ships by moving toward common ship systems. In August, the service selected Lockheed Martin’s Combat Management System Component Based Total Ship System – 21st Century (COMBATSS-21) combat system, which is currently installed only in Lockheed Martin’s Freedom-class LCS, as the common combat system for both frigate variants.
If possible, the Navy would like to cut in the integration of COMBATSS-21 as early as possible on Austal’s Independence-class ships, Brintzinghoffer said.
“Ideally, you’d like to do that. We’d like to start making the changes as soon as you can, but you have to deal with the budget.”