U.S. NAVY'S NEW CONSTELLATION CLASS FRIGATE PROGRAM MOVES FORWARD
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The U.S. Navy's selection of the Italian version of FREMM for its Constellation class FFG(X) program can only be described as a stunning success for Fincantieri. This decision overturned over 200 years of U.S. Navy tradition. For all that time, it has been an abiding Navy principle that all its major surface combatants would be designed in the United States.
On April 30, 2020, the U.S. Navy awarded the contract for the new FFG(X) frigate to the Fincantieri-led team. The value of the contract is $795 million, and it covers the lead ship of the class plus nine additional ships as options. A minimum of 20 ships are planned, with construction taking place at Fincantieri's Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin.
The detail design phase began immediately, and construction began around April 2022. The first ship of the class will be delivered by 20260. The lead ship will cost $1.281 billion, with $795 million of that covering the shipbuilder's detail design and construction costs and the rest covering the government-furnished equipment (GFE), including the combat systems, radar, launchers, command and control systems, decoys and more.
On October 8, 2020, U.S. Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite announced that the first FFG(X) guided-missile frigate will be named USS Constellation (FFG 62), honoring one of the first wooden sailing frigates built for the U.S. Navy. The second USS Constellation was the last wooden sailing frigate built for the Navy and is currently preserved as a National Historic Landmark in Baltimore. FFG 62 will be the fifth ship to bear the name.
Announcement of the name for the lead ship of the FFG 62 class was accompanied by details of the new Battle Force 2045 plan, analyzing the force structure needed by the U.S. Navy to beat China in a high-end conflict. One possibility considered in Battle Force 2045 is contracting with a second yard to help build an increased number of FFG 62 class frigates, following the pattern of two contractors building the Arleigh Burke class destroyers. Three ships of this class have been named to date. The three ships are the Constellation, the Congress, and the Chesapeake. All three are named after three of the U.S. Navy's original six frigates.
In May 2021, a $554 million contract was signed for the second ship of class, the future USS Congress.
On August 15, 2022, Marinette Marine Corp. was awarded a $39,414,122 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-2300, from the United States Navy, to exercise an option for fiscal 2022 engineering and class support requirements in support of detail design and construction of the Constellation class guided-missile frigate.
Work will be performed in Marinette, Wisconsin (30%); Newport News, Virginia (25%); New York, New York (10%); Columbia, Maryland (10%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (10%); Ayer, Massachusetts (5%); Arlington, Virginia (5%); Herndon, Virginia (2%); Camden, New Jersey (2%); and Tulsa, Oklahoma (1%), and is expected to be completed by August 2023.
Work is expected to be completed by August 2031 if all options are exercised.
Fiscal 2022 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,500,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
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