Split Decision on New US Navy Ship | Defense News | defensenews.com: The decision is in, and it’s split right down the middle.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has accepted the Navy’s recommendation that the design of the small surface combatant (SSC), a more powerful ship to follow the littoral combat ship, will be based on the existing LCS.
The decision, laid out in a memo Hagel sent Wednesday to the chief of naval operations (CNO), rules out several choices that included new designs or a version of the Huntington Ingalls patrol frigate.
But Hagel — contrary to widespread expectations — did not decide whether the SSC would be based on the Lockheed Martin Freedom class, or Austal USA’s Independence-class ship.
Nor, apparently, did the Navy favor either design in its recommendations.
Rather, the Navy’s plan is to keep buying modified versions of both LCS variants.
