Crs Report for Congress: Navy Littoral Combat Ship (Lcs) Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress October 1, 2008 - Rl33

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, including unmanned vehicles (UVs). 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's planned force of 55 LCSs accounts for about 18% of its planned fleet of 313 ships of all types. The first ship in the program -- LCS-1 -- was delivered to the Navy on September 18, 2008, and is scheduled to be commissioned into service on November 8, 2008. The Navy substantially restructured the LCS program in 2007 in response to significant cost growth and schedule delays in the program. Congress originally funded a total of six LCS sea frames (LCSs 1 through 6) in the FY2005, FY2006, and FY2007 defense budgets. In 2007, as Congress was considering the proposed FY2008 defense budget, the Navy canceled LCSs 3 though 6 as part of its restructuring of the program, leaving only LCSs 1 and 2 under construction. Congress accepted these cancellations ...