Navy, Contractors Trimming Weight on Both Littoral Combat Ship Variants Ahead of Frigate Design - USNI News: The Navy is working with shipbuilders Austal USA and Lockheed Martin to take weight out of its current Littoral Combat Ships and future frigate design to allow for the addition of more armor and weapons, the Navy has told USNI News.
Frigate program manager Capt. Dan Brintzinghoffer said in April that to create the “frigate,” the Navy would start with the LCS design and add Mk 38 25mm machine guns, the Multi-Function Towed Array detection system, a torpedo decoy, the Raytheon SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system and additional armor – meaning that weight and other margins would have to come off the ship somewhere else.
The Navy will tackle the LCS-to-frigate transition in several ways, Program Executive Officer for LCS Rear Adm. Brian Antonio has told USNI News. The ships contracted after Fiscal Year 2019 will be designed and built as multi-mission frigates instead of LCSs with plug-and-play mission modules. The LCSs already delivered will undergo modifications during future maintenance availabilities to have frigate-like features added in. And the LCSs that will be built between now and FY 2019 will be delivered with as many frigate features as makes sense, based on cost and schedule.
