Lockheed Martin said the U.S. Navy awarded a Lockheed-led team nearly $198 million for construction of the Navy's third Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the second LCS awarded to the Lockheed Martin team.
Lockheed will begin construction in the first quarter of 2007 at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, LA, and the ship will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2009.
"We are excited to continue our partnership with the U.S. Navy on the revolutionary Littoral Combat Ship program," said Dave Broadbent, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Littoral Ships & Systems business. "The team is committed to the LCS program and ready to begin work on our second ship. We continue to make tremendous progress on our first ship as we look forward to its christening this fall. This award enables our team to continue the Navy's vision for building its transformational fleet."
During the construction of the first LCS, Freedom (LCS 1), Bollinger constructed one of the ship's stern modules, giving their Lockport workforce the opportunity to train on LCS processes.
Freedom, the nation's first LCS, is currently under construction at Marinette Marine in Marinette, WI. The Lockheed Martin team was awarded the contract for Freedom in December 2004, began construction of the ship in February 2005 and laid its keel in June 2005. The ship will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2007.
The Lockheed Martin-led team includes naval architect Gibbs & Cox, ship builders Marinette Marine, a subsidiary of The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) , and Bollinger Shipyards, as well as best-of-industry domestic and international teammates to provide a flexible, low-risk warfighting solution.