Lockheed Says It Can ‘Easily’ Improve LCS
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/06/lockheed-says-it-can-easily-improve-lcs/
The $584 million dollar USS Freedom
Lockheed Says It Can Easily Improve LCS
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on June 10, 2014 at 8:54 AM
ARLINGTON: In the race to replace the Navys controversial Littoral Combat Ship, the leading contender seems to be
. a better Littoral Combat Ship. Thats the clear implication of what weve been hearing from Navy leadership, and its clear from press briefings today that LCS contractor Lockheed Martin feels pretty confident it can do the job. (Lockheed builds the Freedom-class LCS; the Independence variant is by Austal and General Dynamics).
The incumbents advantage here is time. Lockheed VP Joe North told reporters at the companys pre-Farnborough Air Show briefing that he expects every shipyard across Europe to take a shot. But existing European designs might take years to revise to the US Navys requirements and an all-new design would take at least a decade. Of course, LCS is already in production, and while many in the Pentagon and Congress are deeply dissatisfied with the ship, Lockheed argues that its modular design makes it easy to upgrade.
Whatever they decide they want for upgrades, they will start [putting on ships] as early as FY 17 (fiscal year 2017), North said of the Navy. Lockheed can meet that schedule or even beat it by putting upgrades on 2016 ships if desired, he said confidently. I can easily work these (changes) in, North said, and keep LCS production going without a pause: If you do this right, we dont need to break production. I think thats huge.
So what would the LCS-plus look like? We gave them lots of options, North said, them being the Small Surface Ship Combatant Task Force appointed by Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel to review alternatives to the existing LCS design; the SSCTF will report back to Hagel by August. Lockheed can build its LCS with a bigger main gun (weve always been gun-agonistic, North said), a more powerful radar, or a less zippy but more fuel-efficient power plant all diesels instead of the current diesel-turbine combo if the Navy decides long range is more important than high speed.