A new class of U.S. Navy warships was launched

What I find interesting is LCS-1 is fitted with British Rolls Royce MT30 gas turbines and Italian Issotta Fraschini Diesels.

There will be two seperate LCS designs, just as the JSF or ATF projects. Lockheed Martin consortium is building LCS-1 and LCS-3 while General Dynamics LCS-2 and LCS-4. These four ships are classified as “LCS Flight 0”. After completion, they will be tested for some period, after which the winner design will be announced. General Dynamics LCS, a trimaran design was laid down on January 16th.

If I recall exactly there was another competitor (Raytheon?) at the very beginning of the project, but was eliminated / rejected later.

She looks like a scale model of a cruise liner. :diablo:

Are they still planning to turn the procurement of this into a competition between different manufacturers or is this the final design for all 40 plus craft ?

Last time I looked there was another competitor – General Dynamics with the LCS-2 “USS Independence”. I think those are the only two players.

Are they still planning to turn the procurement of this into a competition between different manufacturers or is this the final design for all 40 plus craft ?