LCS Program: Little Rock Delivered
Within the Littoral Combat Ship Program (LCS), the consortium consisting of Fincantieri, through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), and Lockheed Martin Corporation, has delivered Little Rock (LCS 9) to the U.S. Navy at FMM’s shipyard in Marinette, Wisc. Commissioning is planned for December in Buffalo, N.Y.
Little Rock is part of a program started in 2010, which comprises 11 units, all fully funded, on top of the two units delivered before 2010 (Freedom - LCS 1 and Forth Worth - LCS 3). The Fincantieri and Lockheed Martin team is currently in full-rate production and has delivered five ships to the U.S. Navy to date. There are currently seven ships in various stages of construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, with one more in long-lead production.
The construction contract for the LCS Program Freedom-variant was awarded to FMM in 2010, within the partnership by Lockheed Martin, global leader in the defense sector. It is one of the U.S. Navy’s main shipbuilding programs and relates to a new generation of mid-sized multirole vessels, designed for surveillance activities and coastal defense for deep water operations as well as capabilities for addressing asymmetrical threats such as mines, silent diesel submarines and fast surface ships. 2 LCS Freedom-variant vessels have been successfully deployed to the Western Pacific, the third and fourth have been delivered respectively in 2015 and 2016.