Littoral Combat Ship and Frigate: Delaying Planned Frigate Acquisition Would Enable Better-Informed Decisions
Abstract
The Navys current acquisition approach for its new frigatea ship based on a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) design with minor modificationsrequires Congress to make significant program decisions and commitments in 2017 without key cost, design, and capability knowledge. In particular, the Navy plans to request authority from Congress in 2017 to pursue what the Navy calls a block buy of 12 planned frigates and funding for the lead ship, which the Navy intends to award in 2018. Approval of these plans would effectively represent the final decision for the entire planned buy of 40 LCS and frigates. According to the Navys approved acquisition strategy, the frigates would still require annual appropriations, so Congress would maintain its oversight through its annual appropriation decisions; however, any decision to reduce or delay the program, should that become warranted, could nevertheless be more difficult as the Navy may point to losses in favorable block buy prices, as has been done previously with LCS. The Navys impending request presents a key opportunity for Congress to affect the way forward for the frigate program by ensuring the Navy possesses sufficient knowledge on cost, design, and capability before authorizing an investment of a potential $9 billion for a program that has no current formal cost estimateindependent or otherwise, will not begin key detail design activities until late fiscal year 2018, has significant unknowns in regards to operational performance of the ship upon which its design will be based, and based on the existing and planned shipyard workloads, has no industrial base imperative to begin construction in the Navys planned time frame.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1032170
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office