Navy awards LCS deals to Lockheed, Austal

Under the plan, both Lockheed Martin and Austal USA will build Littoral Combat Ships.

Lockheed Martin and Austal USA received contracts Wednesday to build more Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy, all but assuring that each company will build 10 more of the fast, small warships over the next eight years.

Both companies succeeded in their bids to build more of the ships because, Navy officials said, they were able to reduce the cost of each new vessel to levels significantly below Congressionally-imposed cost caps.

As a result, the long-stalled program that over the past six years has only produced four ships now stands to ramp up to produce 20 ships between now and 2015.

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