Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is designed to defeat growing littoral threats and provide access and dominance in the coastal water battlespace. A fast, maneuverable and networked surface combatant, the LCS provides the required warfighting capabilities and operational flexibility to execute focused missions close to the shore such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare. The LCS will be the first surface combatant to be classed under the new Naval Vessel Rules by the American Bureau of Shipping.
A flexible and reconfigurable seaframe, LCS derives combat capability from rapidly interchangeable mission modules and an open architecture command and control system. Modularity maximizes the flexibility of LCS and enables commanders to meet changing warfare needs, while also supporting spiral development and technology refresh. LCS will be networked to share tactical information with other naval aircraft, ships, submarines, joint and coalition units and LCS groups, providing commanders with the right information quickly and efficiently.
LCS is a new type of warship designed to meet the unique challenges of defending our country’s interests in the coastal waters battle space where the U.S. Navy will increasingly face challenges in the future. Its first missions will include anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, and mine warfare. The Lockheed Martin-led team designed an innovative hull, or seaframe, that exceeds all Navy operational requirements for LCS, while also offering advantages as a low-cost, low-risk design.
With a length of 378 ft. and a beam of 57 ft., LCS will operate in less than 13 feet of water - giving the ship access to thousands of more ports and littoral waters worldwide than today’s Navy combatants. The design combines high-speed maneuverability with a comfortable seakeeping motion that supports launch and recovery operations, combat missions and optimal human performance from the crew. For example, the ship can turn 360 degrees in less than eight lengths at its rated sprint speed; it also can accelerate to full speed in less than two minutes.
Four large, acoustically optimized waterjets provide flexible, high performance propulsion from two diesel powerplants and two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines. This adaptable and reliable power system will provide excellent performance over the range of speeds required for LCS missions.
A simple but innovative feature of the design is the ship’s ability to simultaneously launch, handle, and recover manned and unmanned systems, such as small boats and robotic watercraft, quickly and safely. The design uses an overhead tracked crane system for loading and handling mission packages, significantly accelerating ship reconfiguration both pierside and at sea with a small crew and higher levels of safety. The ship’s low profile enhances its stealth qualities, and supports excellent water access through stern and side doors, making it a superior platform for special operations forces.
The Lockheed Martin team design, a proven semi-planing steel monohull, provides outstanding agility and high-speed maneuverability with known seakeeping characteristics to support launch and recovery operations, mission execution and optimum crew comfort. The Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), named Sea Blade™, is a fast, affordable, low-risk approach designed to dominate the shallow waters surrounding an enemy’s shores - one of the greatest challenges facing the Navy.
LCS is the Navy’s number one budget priority and is a key element of its Sea Power 21 strategic vision for defending the nation and projecting offensive naval operations. The LCS provides the Navy with fast, maneuverable and shallow draft ships aimed at maximizing mission flexibility. Key attributes of the design include low cost, low risk, high speed, shallow draft, maneuverability, and a capacity to accommodate the full range of focused mission packages to defeat enemy mines, fast swarming small boats, diesel-electric submarines and other threats. Lockheed Martin also will have responsibilities as the systems and modularity architect, and lead the overall program management and cost analysis work.
Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship Developments
On July 17, 2003 the US Navy awarded the Lockheed Martin-led Littoral Combat Ship team a $10 million contract for preliminary design of this transformational naval combatant.
On May 27, 2004 Bollinger Shipyards, Inc, a member of the Lockheed Martin led team was awarded a contract to complete the final design of the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship. The initial contract, which includes options to build two "Flight Zero" ships, is valued at $423 million. Bollinger is a member of the Lockheed Martin led team which also includes naval architect Gibbs & Cox and Marinette Marine. Once options are exercised, construction of the first LCS will begin in January, 2005 at Marinette Marine with the launch scheduled in late 2006. Construction of the second ship will begin at Bollinger in 2006. The Navy is expected to announce a selection for additional LCS "Flight One" production in 2007 which could provide for the construction for up to 56 additional ships.
On April 10, 2006 the U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin foreign military sales contract valued at nearly $5.2 million to conduct a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) feasibility study for the Israeli Navy. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will examine possible modifications to its LCS design to meet specific Israeli naval requirements. During the nine-month feasibility study, Lockheed Martin will examine its current LCS design for hull, mechanical and electrical system compatibility with the Israeli Navy’s combat systems and other requirements. The successful completion of this study could lead to follow-on contracts to design and build one or two ships for the Israeli Navy. Construction of these ships would occur at Marinette Marine and Bollinger Shipyards in the United States. Several other countries also have expressed interest in Lockheed Martin’s LCS design concept.
On June 27, 2006 the US Navy awarded a Lockheed Martin-led team nearly $198 million for construction of the Navy’s third Littoral Combat Ship. This is the second LCS awarded to the Lockheed Martin team. The Lockheed Martin team will begin construction in the first quarter of 2007 at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, LA. The ship will be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2009. The US Congress authorized and appropriated the funds for this additional ship in the fiscal year 2006 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. Bollinger Shipyards has already played an active role in the LCS program. 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 and further demonstrating the strength and integration capabilities of the Lockheed Martin team.
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 first LCS for the U.S. Navy, Freedom (LCS 1), under construction at Marinette Marine in Marinette, WI, is to be homeported in San Diego, will launch in the summer of 2006 and be delivered in 2007. The ship will be christened this fall and delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2007.
Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship Contractor Team
Lockheed Martin is a global leader in maritime systems integration and serves as prime contractor for the team’s Sea Blade™ design. The Lockheed Martin-led team includes naval architect Gibbs & Cox, ship builders Marinette Marine and Bollinger Shipyards, as well as best-of-industry domestic and international teammates to provide a low-risk, affordable LCS solution. Principal members on the Lockheed Martin team include naval architect Gibbs & Cox and mid-market ship builders Bollinger Shipyards and Marinette Marine. This team provides the Navy with a proven capability to deliver innovative industry approaches to the design, development and construction of LCS at an affordable price.
Gibbs & Cox, Inc. is responsible for the overall seaframe design, including integration of the hull, mechanical and electrical systems. Specializing in surface combatant design and integration, Gibbs & Cox, Inc., brings more than 70 years of naval engineering expertise to the LCS program. Ships on active duty in nearly 20 navies around the globe, including 60 percent of the U.S. Navy’s surface combatant fleet, are built to Gibbs & Cox, Inc. designs. The firm also provides engineering and design support directly to the U.S. Navy in early phase design and development of future systems for the Navy’s surface combatant fleet.
Bollinger Shipyards and Marinette Marine will employ proven materials and construction techniques that have successfully delivered more than 190 ships on time and on budget in the last 10 years. These mid-size shipyards are ideally suited and optimally sized for building LCS class ships. Combined, Bollinger Shipyards and Marinette Marine have built more than 135 ships for the Navy and Coast Guard. In addition to the principal team members, Sea Blade™ core team support includes high-speed ship expertise from Donald L. Blount and Associates, IZAR, Fincantieri and NAVATEK; modularity expertise from Blohm + Voss; and functional expertise from Angle, Inc., ABS, BBN Technologies, Charters Technical Services, DRS Technologies and MA&D.
Using an open business model, the Lockheed Martin LCS team will continue to recruit “best of breed” technical specialists from the U.S. and abroad.
Four Naval Personnel Development Command Learning Centers have been working since November 2005 to build a training program for the first crew members of the Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), USS Freedom, who started arriving for duty in January 2006.
The Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS) is the lead Learning Center of Excellence for LCS and is working in conjunction with the Center for Naval Engineering (CNE), Center for Service Support (CSS) and Center for Information Dominance on individual schoolhouse training issues. To identify the skills needed to operate the ship, Human Capital Objects (HCO), a detailed description that identifies all work, including watches and collateral duties.
LCS is the first ship on which manning and training requirements were determined based on the development of Human Capital Objects, leveraging the significant work accomplished in Job/Task Analysis and skills-based assessment. With a total projected crew of 75, the optimally manned Freedom requires that its crew members have skills in more than just their rating. They will have a blend of skills from several ratings, which is creating a new, or hybrid, Sailor.
The new system of preparation and evaluation for LCS is necessary because of its unique crew size and billets aboard. Each LCS will have a core crew of about 40 Sailors for a ship about the size of a frigate. The core crew will be joined by a mission package crew and an aviation detachment, bringing the total crew size to approximately 75. To perform any one of several missions, an LCS seaframe can be configured with mine warfare, anti-surface or anti-submarine mission modules.
With Train to Qualify, everyone has to report aboard the LCS ready to fulfill all the duties of their watches and their jobs, both individually and as an integral part of the crew. The main change with this process is that each Sailor will be evaluated by strict reference to uniform measures, metrics and standards. They will be required to demonstrate parts of their job in ways that give their evaluators, their fellow crew members and commanding officers confidence that they will be able to step into their role aboard LCS with minimal on-the-job training. .
The way the LCS Sailor is chosen is also a new process. Instead of looking for a specific Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC), they are looking for a specific set of skills for each LCS billet. Every Sailor stationed aboard an LCS will be filling a specific numbered billet defined by tasks that often range far from their individual rating or NEC. With this, the entire detailing process is being changed to incorporate time for all the training a Sailor must get before stepping aboard an LCS. With LCS, a billet will become available 18–24 months before a scheduled loss instead of the normal 9–12 months currently used.
Once a Sailor has been chosen to fill the LCS billet, their individual training track will then be made up for them and train them on the skills they are lacking. This will be completed by a combination of online, classroom and simulator training since they will be required to step aboard LCS ready to stand watch.
By July 2006 the Navy’s first Mine Warfare (MIW) Mission Package (MP) Det. 1 crew was currently training and preparing to operate from the Navy’s most innovative, modularized and reconfigurable ship – the Littoral Combat Ship, future USS Freedom (LCS 1). The modularity and flexibility of the mission packages ensure that we can transport and embark them on the LCS when and where they’re needed very quickly. Training the first MIW MP Det. 1 crew to board the future Freedom signified one of the last required phases in certifying the mission packages ready for deployment. The mission package is only complete when a qualified crew embarks the ship with the package. The detachment crew was on track to conclude qualification trials in November 2007. After successful qualification, the crew will be certified for deployment aboard the future Freedom. The crew will also receive training in Visit, Board, Search and Seizure, and Anti-terrorism/Force Protection according to Ed Brenner, Mine Warfare Training lead.
In October 2007 the Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) team demonstrated the successful operation of Freedom (LCS 1)'s automated stern doors, articulating stern ramp and the side launch doors, key elements of the unique launch and recovery system of the nation's first LCS. The stern ramp offers the capability of launching and recovering large hard-bottomed vehicles such as 11 meter rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) or the special operations forces high speed boat, while the ship is underway. The unique side door in the LCS's design provides a second launch and recovery point for smaller vehicles and can also be used for replenishment and refueling of at-sea mission packages. Both access points are serviced by an overhead crane system that extends overboard and is capable of lifting any vehicle designed to be carried by the LCS.
Freedom was under construction at Marinette Marine in Marinette, WI, where continuing outfitting and testing were completed for delivery in 2008, about a year later than originally scheduled. Freedom will be home ported in San Diego, CA.
