Mary-Louise Hoffman
A consortium of Lockheed Martin, Marinette Marine and Gibbs & Cox has started to design and construct a 13th Littoral Combat Ship for the U.S. Navy.
A keel laying ceremony of the USS Wichita took place Monday at Marinette’s facility in Wisconsin and Kate Staples Lehrer, an author and a ship sponsor, signed her initials into the keel plate during the event, Lockheed said Monday.
The Lockheed-led team has delivered two LCS ships to the Navy and is building or testing six other similar vessels.
“We have leveraged best practices and incorporated improvements based on sailors’ feedback to ensure the fleet is prepared and empowered to fight, operate and support the ship in the littorals and open seas worldwide,” said Joe North, vice president of Lockheed’s littoral ships and systems business.
Wichita will be designed to have multimission modules intended to allow the vessel to perform submarine warfare, mine countermeasure and anti-surface warfare operations.
Lockheed also works with almost 900 technology suppliers through the LCS program.
