$49.8M Contract Award to Support Littoral Combat Ship Program.

Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast awarded last month a $49.8 million contract to Walsh Federal LLC to build a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) logistics facility at Naval Station (NS) Mayport, Florida.

The littoral combat ship USS Billings (LCS 15) (Picture source: U.S. Navy)

As NS Mayport is going to receive 14 LCSs to the base, construction of an improved logistics facility is expected to support personnel and crew assigned to these ships. The facility will support the LCS program, which includes the LCS Operational Trainer Facility (LTF).

The contract provides for the construction of a new four-story building and renovations to an existing building. Together, the two buildings will house the ashore component of administrative functions for deployed and in-port LCSs, as well as a portion of the training component.

The project also includes adjacent road improvements that will connect the logistics facility directly to a new parking garage that is being designed and constructed under a separate contract. The work started Oct.1 and expected to be completed by August 2021.

Initiated in February 2002, the LCS program represents a reduction in time to acquire, design and build ships in comparison to any previous ship class. LCS is a fast, agile and mission-focused platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. The LCS class consists of two variants: the Freedom and the Independence.

Currently, 33 LCSs are planned. So far, 16 ships have been delivered (LCS 1-14, 16 and 18), and 10 additional LCSs are under various stages of construction, as three are in the pre-construction phase.

The littoral combat ship (LCS) is a set of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals. Littoral combat ships are comparable to the corvettes found in other navies.