Five ship designs will compete in the Navy’s bid for 20 next-generation guided-missile frigates (FFG(X)) that will follow the Littoral Combat Ship, the service announced on Friday.

Five shipbuilders were awarded contracts for conceptual design of the frigates, which the Navy will evaluate over the next 16 months ahead of a final request for proposal in 2019 and a contract award in 2020.

Austal USA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Fincantieri Marine and Huntington Ingalls Industries were each awarded $15 million contracts for the work.

“These conceptual designs will reduce FFG(X) risk by enabling industry to mature designs to meet the approved FFG(X) capability requirements,” read a late Friday statement from Naval Sea Systems Command.
“The contracts based on these requirements will facilitate maturing multiple designs during the 16 months of the conceptual design phase, and will allow the Navy to better understand the cost and capability drivers across the various design options. Furthermore, this will inform the final specifications for a full and open competition with a single source award in FY20 for Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) of the FFG(X).”

Each design the Navy selected was based on a “mature” parent design that is already in production for the U.S. or foreign navies and that could incorporate a laundry list of systems the Navy will require for the FFG(X). Foreign designs required a partnership with a U.S. shipyard for construction. The Navy expects to pay anywhere from $800 to $950 million per hull for the next-generation frigate.

The Navy would not confirm how many groups bid for the work. At least one U.S.-German team that was not selected for a design contract, Atlas USA and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, told USNI News they had submitted for the competition.

In July the Navy released many details of the government-furnished equipment side of the frigate design, when it released a request for information that would inform the conceptual design phase request for proposal. Whereas the LCS has been criticized for not having enough offensive firepower to contribute to a naval battle in a meaningful way, the FFG(X) will be outfitted with equipment to succeed in “complex electronic warfare and anti-ship missile threat environments” as both an independent-deployer and as part of a larger battle group.

Though the Navy had not settled on a final solution regarding how many Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells the ship would have and what balance of VLS-compatible missiles it might use, the RFI made clear VLS would be an important part of the frigate’s punching power.

Aside from the VLS, though, the RFI in many ways resembled the Navy’s previous frigate requirements — the Navy has evolved from an upgunned LCS to a frigate to a guided-missile frigate over the past few years in an attempt to figure out how to address criticisms of the Flight I LCSs being built, fielded and deployed today.

“Many of the required weapons systems are pulled from the previous FF requirements: the COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System, which pulls software from the same common source library as the Aegis Combat System on large surface combatants; the SeaRAM anti-ship missile defense system; a canister-launched over-the-horizon missile; the surface-to-surface Longbow Hellfire missile; the Mk53 Nulka decoy launching system; the Surface Electron Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 program with SLQ-32(V)6; and a slew of undersea warfare tools such as the AN/SLQ-61 light weight tow, AN/SQS-62 variable depth sonar and AN/SQQ-89F undersea warfare/anti-submarine warfare combat system. It also requires use of the MK 110 57mm gun with the Advanced Low Cost Munition Ordnance (ALaMO) projectile being developed for the LCS and frigate,” USNI News reported last summer.

During last month’s Surface Navy Association, several shipbuilders outlined their designs for the FFG(X) competition.

Fincantieri Marine Group

Shipyard: Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisc.
Parent Design: Fincantieri Italian FREMM
As part of the stipulations of the FFG(X) programs, a contractor can offer just one design in the competition as a prime contractor but may also support a second bid as a subcontractor. Fincantieri elected to offer its 6,700-ton Italian Fregata europea multi-missione (FREMM) design for construction in its Wisconsin Marinette Marine shipyard, as well as partner with Lockheed Martin on its Freedom-class pitch as a subcontractor. The Italian FREMM design features a 16-cell VLS as well as space for deck-launched anti-ship missiles.

Lockheed Martin

Shipyard: Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisc.
Parent Design: Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship
Of the two LCS builders, Lockheed Martin is the first to have secured a foreign military sale with its design. The company’s FFG(X) bid will have much in common with its offering for the Royal Saudi Navy’s 4,000-ton multi-mission surface combatant. The new Saudi ships will be built around an eight-cell Mk-41 vertical launch system and a 4D air search radar. Lockheed has pitched several other variants of the hull that include more VLS cells.
“We are proud of our 15-year partnership with the U.S. Navy on the Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship and look forward to extending it to FFG(X),” said Joe DePietro, Lockheed Martin vice president of small combatants and ship systems in a Friday evening statement.
“Our frigate design offers an affordable, low-risk answer to meeting the Navy’s goals of a larger and more capable fleet.”

The following is the Feb. 16, 2018 contract annoucement from Naval Sea Systems Command.

Lockheed Martin Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, is being awarded a $14,999,889 firm-fixed-price contract for Guided Missile Frigate (FFG(X)) conceptual design. Lockheed Martin Incorporated will be maturing their proposed ship design to meet the FFG(X) system specification. The conceptual design effort will inform the final specifications that will be used for the detail design and construction request for proposal that will deliver the required capability for FFG(X). The conceptual design phase will reduce cost, schedule, and performance risk for the follow-on detail design and construction contract. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $21,972,630. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland (39 percent); Arlington, Virginia (23 percent); Moorestown, New Jersey (13 percent); New York, New York (12 percent), Newport News, Virginia (12 percent); and Marinette, Wisconsin (1 percent), and is expected to be complete by June 2019. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation; and fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amounts of $11,000,000 and $1,200,000 respectively will be obligated at time of award and funds in the amount of $1,200,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with six offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (N00024-18-C-2329)

Marinette Marine Corp., doing business as Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin, is being awarded a $14,994,626 firm-fixed-price contract for Guided Missile Frigate (FFG(X)) conceptual design. Fincantieri Marinette Marine will be maturing their proposed ship design to meet the FFG(X) system specification. The conceptual design effort will inform the final specifications that will be used for the detail design and construction request for proposal that will deliver the required capability for FFG(X). The conceptual design phase will reduce cost, schedule, and performance risk for the follow-on detail design and construction contract. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $22,977,617. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia (40 percent); Marinette, Wisconsin (25 percent); Moorestown, New Jersey (18 percent); Iron Mountain, Michigan (7 percent); Crozet, Virginia (5 percent); and Metairie, Louisiana (5 percent), and is expected to be complete by June 2019. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation; and fiscal 2017 research, development, test and evaluation funding in the amounts of $11,000,000 and $1,200,000 respectively will be obligated at time of award and funds in the amount of $1,200,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with six offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. (N00024-18-C-2328)

Article By: Sam LaGrone and Megan Eckstein