Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
August 28, 2008
Pg. B4
By August Cole
After passing a U.S. Navy review, Lockheed Martin Corp. is closing in on delivering a new warship that will be a milestone in the defense contractor's expanding foray into shipbuilding.
The USS Freedom, the first of a new class of near-shore combat vessels called the Littoral Combat Ship, was recently inspected by Navy officials and put through trials on Lake Michigan.
The ship is being built at the Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin and is based on a commercial high-speed hull design from Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani SpA.
The successful inspection is one of the few bright spots for the program, which has been buffeted by ballooning costs that prompted the Navy to scale back on the number of ships it planned to build during the early phases.
The Navy originally planned to build six ships, with Lockheed and rival General Dynamics Corp. each delivering three.
The Navy is pitting the two companies against each another, with the winner potentially receiving the bulk, if not almost all, of the expected 55 orders for ships of this size.
But design changes and other delays more than doubled the estimated $220 million price tag for each ship, prompting Navy Secretary Donald Winter to limit each contractor to building one ship. Another two ships are expected to be included in the 2009 defense budget and the Navy has yet to decide how it will dole out the remaining orders. Another ship was funded as part of the 2008 budget but the Navy hasn't picked a builder.
During the recent trials of the Lockheed ship, a team of Navy officials found a "capable, well-built and an inspection-ready ship" and recommended the Navy accept the vessel, said Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ship programs.
The Navy also said it found far fewer items that needed attention than is usual on a new model of ship. Some environmental and technical tests will have to wait until the ship is on the Atlantic Ocean. The USS Freedom likely will be accepted in September and then commissioned in November. It will then travel from Wisconsin to Virginia for ocean-going testing.
"On balance, we were just very pleased at this whole thing," said a Lockheed spokesman. "We look forward to commissioning day on Nov. 8."
The first General Dynamics ship is expected to complete acceptance trials by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
The milestone for Lockheed follows closely on the company's decision earlier this month to team with Fincantieri to buy Manitowoc Co.'s Manitowoc Marine Group LLC, which owns the Marinette shipyard. Lockheed didn't disclose how much it contributed to the $120 million deal, but a company spokesman said the amount wasn't material to the company's earnings. Nevertheless, Lockheed's alliance with Fincantieri is seen as a signal to Navy leaders that the company is committed to shipbuilding.
August 28, 2008
Pg. B4
By August Cole
After passing a U.S. Navy review, Lockheed Martin Corp. is closing in on delivering a new warship that will be a milestone in the defense contractor's expanding foray into shipbuilding.
The USS Freedom, the first of a new class of near-shore combat vessels called the Littoral Combat Ship, was recently inspected by Navy officials and put through trials on Lake Michigan.
The ship is being built at the Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin and is based on a commercial high-speed hull design from Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani SpA.
The successful inspection is one of the few bright spots for the program, which has been buffeted by ballooning costs that prompted the Navy to scale back on the number of ships it planned to build during the early phases.
The Navy originally planned to build six ships, with Lockheed and rival General Dynamics Corp. each delivering three.
The Navy is pitting the two companies against each another, with the winner potentially receiving the bulk, if not almost all, of the expected 55 orders for ships of this size.
But design changes and other delays more than doubled the estimated $220 million price tag for each ship, prompting Navy Secretary Donald Winter to limit each contractor to building one ship. Another two ships are expected to be included in the 2009 defense budget and the Navy has yet to decide how it will dole out the remaining orders. Another ship was funded as part of the 2008 budget but the Navy hasn't picked a builder.
During the recent trials of the Lockheed ship, a team of Navy officials found a "capable, well-built and an inspection-ready ship" and recommended the Navy accept the vessel, said Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ship programs.
The Navy also said it found far fewer items that needed attention than is usual on a new model of ship. Some environmental and technical tests will have to wait until the ship is on the Atlantic Ocean. The USS Freedom likely will be accepted in September and then commissioned in November. It will then travel from Wisconsin to Virginia for ocean-going testing.
"On balance, we were just very pleased at this whole thing," said a Lockheed spokesman. "We look forward to commissioning day on Nov. 8."
The first General Dynamics ship is expected to complete acceptance trials by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
The milestone for Lockheed follows closely on the company's decision earlier this month to team with Fincantieri to buy Manitowoc Co.'s Manitowoc Marine Group LLC, which owns the Marinette shipyard. Lockheed didn't disclose how much it contributed to the $120 million deal, but a company spokesman said the amount wasn't material to the company's earnings. Nevertheless, Lockheed's alliance with Fincantieri is seen as a signal to Navy leaders that the company is committed to shipbuilding.