The US Navy is hedging its bets on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), awarding both contenders a contract for another 10 ships each.
The USA division of Australian-headquartered Austal has been awarded a US Navy contract to construct one Independence Class LCS.
The total value of the contract is US$432.1 million.
The contract includes options for nine additional vessels in the following five years.
Austal will immediately commence preparation work including a US$140 million facility expansion and workforce development which will take approximately 12 months to complete.
Construction of the first LCS vessel will commence in early 2012 and is scheduled for delivery in 2015.
The aluminium warships will be built at Austal’s US shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, and will more than double Austal’s US workforce to around 3,800 employees.
The US Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led industry team a fixed-price-incentive-fee contract to construct up to 10 LCSs.
The first of the 10 ships will be acquired in 2010, at a contract value of $437 million, and the rest via options through 2015.
If all options are exercised, the total value of the ship construction portion of the contract will reach approximately $3.6 billion.