The Naval Sea Systems Command has announced plans to award a contract to Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) to provide a common combat management platform for future frigates, USNI News reported Wednesday.Megan Eckstein writes the service branch’s intention to award the sole-source contract to Lockheed comes after its decision to designate the modified littoral combat ships as frigates and adopt a single class of CMS for the upgraded vessels.
The military branch said in a FedBizOpps notice that Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training would work to build and deliver two Combat Management System Component Based Total Ship System – 21st Century units for LCS-class frigates from fiscal year 2016 through fiscal year 2021.
The contract would also call for the company to develop the software and procure the hardware for integration with the Independence and Freedom-variant LCS with possible options for engineering support, hardware components for two additional frigate ship sets and logistics products for CMS.
The current LCS program is composed of a Lockheed-built Freedom-variant hull design with COMBATSS-21 platform and an Austal-made Independence-variant that has Northrop Grumman-built (NYSE: NOC) CMS.
“The Navy determined that COMBATTS-21 was the only common combat management system which would not result in unacceptable delays to FF design and acquisition timeline, †said Chris Johnson, a spokesman for NAVSEA.
