Littoral Combat Ship

Most of you, my faithful readers, are aware of the shift in our national strategic interest to littoral warfare vice the deep water naval warfare that we have been prepared for since WWII and through the Cold War. That is not news. In support of this strategic shift, the Navy abandoned production of the Seawolf class of submarine and has purchased the Virginia class.

Now we are begnning to see the new littoral warfare concept being applied in the surface fleet. Meet the Littoral Combat Ship. See it here too. My company, General Dynamics (I work for Electric Boat Corp.), has won a large LCS contract (yipeeee!). This is GD's site.

From the Press Release;

The LCS is the Navy’s newest surface combatant and is a key element in the Navy’s surface combatant force transformation strategy. Designed to accommodate focused missions modules for mine warfare, antisubmarine warfare and antisurface warfare, among others, LCS will ensure and enhance friendly force access to littoral areas.

The General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship's innovative trimaran hull form will give the Navy a ship that can reach open ocean speeds nearing 50 knots and possesses outstanding seakeeping capabilities. LCS 2, has a flight deck larger than any other surface combatant that will support near-simultaneous operation of two MH-60R/S helicopters or multiple unmanned vehicles. LCS 2 will also provide one of the largest useable payload volumes of any U.S. Navy surface combatant and deliver greater payload per displacement ton than any ship of comparable displacement.

The General Dynamics Team has designed a technical infrastructure that is not bound by proprietary systems. The result is a flexible information technology backbone that uses strict industry standards, commercially available products and published interfaces to ensure the Navy will not be locked into a proprietary system that will limit access to alternatives. The open architecture design eliminates dependencies on any specific hardware and software products thereby making it possible for the Navy to take advantage of rapidly changing advancements in the market place.

Bath Iron Works is leading a best-of-breed team that includes Austal USA (Mobile, Ala.), responsible for building the team's aluminum and steel trimaran warship. General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, of Arlington, Va., is leading the ship's open-architecture-based Core Mission System design and integration from its Pittsfield, Mass., facility.

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (Baltimore, Md.) will provide the Integrated Combat Management System, BAE Electronic Systems (Rockville, Md.) will provide the radio communications system and L3 Communications (Leesburg, Va.) the automated ship control system. Maritime Applied Physics Corporation, (Baltimore, Md.), General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products (Burlington, Vt.), Electric Boat (Groton, Conn.) and General Dynamics Canada (Ottawa, Ontario) are also team members.

This is going to be some really good stuff.