Austal to build two additional LCS
Austal USA has received a contract from the US Navy to build two additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), the company announced on 18 September.
The two Independence-class ships will be the eighteenth and nineteenth ships in the class. The value of each contract is under the congressional cost cap of $584 million per ship.
The LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides primary mission systems for naval operations.
Austal has already delivered eight ships and six are under construction, with three more awaiting start of construction.
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