By David Schuyler  – Digital Producer, Milwaukee Business Journal 

May 23, 2018, 2:44pm CDT Updated May 23, 2018, 1:32pm 

The U.S. Navy shipbuilding program that has supported thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact in Wisconsin since the mid-2000s is slated to wind down with the last of 32 littoral combat ships to be ordered either this year or next.

But it’s possible that the work won’t end for the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, which was tasked to produce half of the U.S. Navy’s LCS orders as a member of the contract team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md. The U.S. Navy now wants another small class of combatants that could bring $10 billion worth of work and hundreds of additional jobs to Wisconsin, and the Marinette shipyard has more than one way of winning the contract.

The U.S. Navy intends to transition to a class of new frigates, called FFG(X), with the intent of procuring 20 of the ships. In order to speed deployment and keep cost down, the Navy wants existing designs adaptable to the new specifications of the program, which call for a guided-missile frigate with combat and mechanical systems suitable for a carrier strike group and independent operation.

Combined with the LCS program, the frigates would fill out the Navy’s desire for achieving and maintaining a force of 52 small surface combatants as part of the Navy’s plans for building a 355-ship fleet. 

The Navy is holding a competition for designs for the FFG(X) and in February, it selected five designs to compete for the work. Two of the five would mean more work in Marinette. 

The five finalist contractors were awarded $15 million for conceptual designs that the Navy will evaluate over the next year or so. A final request for proposal will be issued in 2019 and the contract will be awarded in 2020, according to a U.S. Naval Institute report.

Fincantieri, owner of the former Marinette Marine shipyard, won one of those contracts for its submitted design, which is essentially its FREMM frigate now in use in the Italian and French navies. Another finalist is Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), which submitted its Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS) parent design in response to the U.S. Navy's FFG(X) conceptual design solicitation. If either design wins, Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette would essentially be the shipbuilder.

The designs from Fincantieri Marinette Marine and Lockheed Martin are competing for the FFG(X) program with designs from Austal USA, which submitted the Independence-variant LCS design, and with submissions from General Dynamics Iron Bath Works in Maine and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Virginia.

A win would be significant for Wisconsin. If Fincantieri’s design wins, the Italian shipbuilder would hire about 500 more employees in Wisconsin, while the work would retain 1,500 jobs, a company spokesman said. Fincantieri Marine Group already employs more than 2,000 workers in the United States. 

The shipyard value of the contract will be $10 billion for the 20 ships, with an initial order for 10 ships, or $5 billion, according to the Fincantieri spokesman.

Fincantieri is now touring the Italian frigate ITS Alpino along the East Coast in a demonstration of its capabilities. The FREMM-class frigate landed at Norfolk, Va., earlier this week and will venture to Baltimore, New York City, and Boston. 

"The ITS Alpino demonstrates the proven versatility and capability of the FREMM class frigate," said Vice Admiral Richard Hunt (Ret.), Fincantieri Marinette Marine's chief strategy officer. "It is lethal, survivable, designed for sailors and in service now. It provides a superior platform for the U.S. Navy FFG(X) competition and can provide great combat capability for our Navy in the near term and beyond. It will contribute to the defense of America and our allies."

Fincantieri is also a partner in Lockheed Martin’s bid, which proposes an FFG(X) based upon the the two companies’ current LCS class now being produced in Marinette. That may be significant, since in congressional background materials on the status of the LCS program dated April 5, the FFG(X) design “may or may not be based on one of the two LCS designs.” That the LCS designs produced by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri’s Marinette shipyard — and at Austal USA’s shipyard in Alabama — are specifically mentioned suggests the suitability of basing the FFG(X) design on the LCS hull design.

It's also noteworthy that in May 2017, then-acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley said the two LCS shipyards, with their mature production lines, will likely hold a cost advantage. 

Perhaps the primary difference between the current LCS and the future frigate being sought by the U.S. Navy will be the frigate’s ability to support Hellfire guided missiles, which are launched vertically. The Wisconsin-built LCS ships implemented that capability into later designs and Fincantieri’s FREMM class already has the capability for vertically launched missiles.

To be sure, the last orders for littoral combat ships won’t mean the Marinette shipyard will go idle. The Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine team has delivered five Freedom-variant ships to the U.S. Navy to date and has eight ships in various stages of construction in Marinette, with one more in long-lead production, Lockheed Martin said in February. Still, as the ships filter through with no work replace to them, jobs will be inevitably be lost.