Navy Quietly Surges Ahead Building New Littoral Combat Ships

Video Above: Navy Connects Air, Surface, Underseas Drones

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

Beneath the visible enthusiasm and widespread discussion about several of the Navy’s new platforms such as the DDG 51 Flight III and DDG X destroyer program, the service is quietly continuing to produce and improve its growing fleet of Littoral Combat Ships.

Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Production

The Navy has already commissioned as many as 23 Littoral Combat Ships and 35 have been awarded or put on contract, according to published Navy data on the LCS fleet. LCS production therefore, while it may seem somewhat beneath the radar, is consuming a massive amount of Navy priority attention. 

Navy data says beyond the 35 on contract, three more are pre-delivery, five additional LCS are under various stages of construction and four are in the pre-construction phase.”

“We’re continuing that strong drumbeat of production, we’re still tearing through a lot of the ships that are in post delivery, making sure that we’re finishing those up strong, and we are making sure that we continue to incorporate lessons learned,” Capt. Andy Gold, Littoral Combat Ship Program Manager, told an audience at the 2022 Surface Navy Association Symposium. 

With 35 already awarded and more on the way, it might seem easy for some to forget about the sheer size of the LCS fleet. The overall plan continues to be to build and deploy a strong, large fleet of LCS’.