Littoral Combat Ship

This month we take a look at the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and next-generation guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)) sonar systems, neither yet in production, with both programs presenting better opportunities for new contractors and subcontractors.

The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has been designed to operate one of three major interchangeable Mission Modules (MM) or Mission Packages (MP): Mine Countermeasures (MCM), Surface Warfare (SUW), and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). Mission modules include weapons and sensors launched and recovered from LCS seaframes and operated from MH-60 helicopters and Fire Scout VTUAVs. The Navy planned to deliver increments of MCM, SUW, and ASW sequentially over time.

ASW Mission Package (MP) components include a torpedo countermeasures system, a Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), and the AN/SQR-20 (now TB-37U) Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) (Lockheed Martin). Lockheed Martin’s AN/SQQ-89(V) is also the technical foundation at the heart of the LCS sonar architecture. The Aviation Module offers airborne threat localization and engagement capability through a Fire Scout VTUAV and an MH-60R helicopter with MK54 torpedoes. The individual systems are combined into three modules: Torpedo Defense Countermea­sure; ASW Escort/Large area Clearance; and Aviation Module.

Despite continuing delays, with a requirement for between 30 (already ordered for LCS) and 52 (including the now-superseded Frigate (FF)) ships needing either the swap-out ASW mission module or a permanent seaframe-mounted system (yes, like a normal warship...), until 2019 this was potentially a very large sonar program. By early 2018, almost 30 LCSs were already under construction or in service.

But instead, in June 2019 the US Navy released a new final request for proposals (RfP) for its next-generation guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)). Nearly all the sensors and systems for the new FFG(X) are now required to be already-selected government-furnished equipment (GFE), mostly well-established systems already in service on other Navy ships. Instead of a version of Raytheon’s AN/SQQ-90 from the DDG-1000 class destroyer (based on Lockheed’s SQQ-89), or a version of the LCS ASW Mission Package, the FFG(X) will mount Lockheed’s well-established AN/SQQ-89(V)15 Surface Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Combat System, as well as the AN/SQS-62 Variable Depth Sonar. The Navy intends to buy at least 20 frigates, though the first contract will only cover the first 10.

Even before this, in 2018 the Navy seemed to have cut their Program of Record (PoR) requirement for LCS mission modules – essentially no longer planning to buy enough modules to provide one of each type for each LCS (which was always, come to think of it, a wasteful idea...). Instead, the Navy seemed to only plan 10 ASW mission modules, probably in part because all FFG(X)s will also mount a full ASW suite. Our forecast provides for only these 10, though there is a very good chance that a few more will be bought to fill in until FFG(X) production is well underway, especially if FFG(X) production is further delayed than we already forecast. On the other hand, the LCS may be more valuable as a littoral mine-hunter (albeit a very expensive one), and the 24 planned MCM modules could wind up as the standard, permanent LCS fit.