Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress
Abstract
The Navy is procuring a new type of surface combatant called the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The LCS is a small, fast, relatively inexpensive combat ship that is to be equipped with modular "plug-and-fight" mission packages. The basic version of the LCS, without any mission packages, is referred to as the LCS sea frame. The Navy wants to procure a total of 55 LCSs. The Navy substantially restructured the LCS program in 2007 in response to significant cost growth and construction delays in the program. The first ship in the program-LCS-1-was commissioned into service on November 8, 2008. A second-LCS-2-is to be delivered to the Navy later this year. Two more LCSs were funded in FY2009 at a cost of $1,020 million and are now under construction. The Navy's proposed FY2010 budget requests $1,380 million for the procurement of three more LCSs. This figure equates to $460 million per ship-the unit procurement cost cap for the LCS program, which applies to LCSs procured in FY2010 and subsequent years. The Navy's proposed FY2010 budget also requests $360.5 million in research and development funding for the LCS program. The $360.5 million includes $75.5 million to cover cost growth on the construction of LCSs 1 and 2, which were procured through the Navy's research and development account. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy's plans for the LCS program. The LCS program raises potential oversight issues for Congress relating to cost growth, total program acquisition cost, the procurement cost cap, technical risk, operational evaluation and competition for production, a proposed common combat system, and coordination of sea frames and mission packages. This report will be updated as events warrant.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 05, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA501417
Entities
People
- Ronald O'Rourke
Organizations
- Library of Congress