General Dynamics Mission Systems announced today that it was awarded a cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price contract by the U.S. Navy worth $33.7 million to be the design agent and provide lifecycle sustainment services to support the Independence-variant Littoral Class Ship (LCS) Combat System. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $92.6 million. General Dynamics Mission Systems will provide the overall in-service engineering and lifecycle support for the command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, and intelligence (C5I) systems by delivering critical engineering, software development, testing and system upgrade/replacement planning onboard LCS hulls and at shore-based facilities. Work will be performed in Pittsfield, Mass.; San Diego; and Mobile, Ala. and is expected to be completed by March 2025.
“General Dynamics Mission Systems has been the Independence-variant combat systems provider since the beginning of the program,” said Scott Beauchemin, vice president of surface systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems. “We look forward to continuing to provide the U.S. Navy with upgrades to the Independence-variant LCS combat system so it remains ready to meet the needs of our sailors’ missions today and in the future.”
The Independence class is a class of littoral combat ships built for the United States Navy. The hull design evolved from a project at Austal to design a high speed, 40-knot-cruise ship. That hull design evolved into the high-speed trimaran ferry HSC Benchijigua Express and the Independence class was then proposed by General Dynamics and Austal as a contender for Navy plans to build a fleet of smaller, agile, multipurpose warships to operate nearshore in the littoral zone. In February 2020 it was announced that the Navy plans to retire the first four LCS ships. On 20 June 2020, the US Navy announced that all four would be taken out of commission in March 2021, and will be placed in inactive reserve, because it would be too expensive to upgrade them to match the later ships in the class.
General Dynamics Mission Systems provides mission critical solutions for defense, intelligence and cybersecurity customers across all domains. The company was formed in January 2015 when General Dynamics combined the company’s C4 Systems and Advanced Information Systems. General Dynamics C4 Systems was originally owned by GTE and operated as GTE Government Systems. General Dynamics acquired GTE Government Systems in 1999. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, General Dynamics Mission Systems employs approximately 12,500 people worldwide.
