Within the Littoral Combat Ship Program (LCS), the US Navy has awarded the consortium consisting of Fincantieri, through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), and Lockheed Martin Corporation, a contract to build an additional LCS. The contract value is under the 2017 congressional cost cap of 584 million dollars per ship.

LCS 27 will be the 14th ship of the LCS Program Freedom-variant, one of the US Navy’s main shipbuilding programs. The Fincantieri and Lockheed Martin team is currently in full-rate production and has delivered five ships to the U.S. Navy to date. The last one, “Little Rock” (LCS 9), was delivered on September 26. There are currently seven ships in various stages of construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the Midwest’s only naval shipyard, with two 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 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.