LCS Mission Module Production to Slow

Mission Modules will be delayed? Who would have thought? Pretty much everyone last I checked. This will no doubt raise costs on the modules (thus the cost of the whole LCS project), which is sad since costs on the modules is about the only thing the LCS had going for it until now.

Capt. John Sorce, the Navy’s deputy director for surface ships in the chief of naval operations’ office, said May 31 that Navy officials are in the process of redesigning the module program because of delays with the initial LCS ships.

Sorce did not detail what changes would be made because decisions are yet to be approved. Nonetheless, he said the changes would be released in service’s outyear budget plan known as “program review 2009.”

Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a spokesman for Navy acquisition chief Delores Etter, said the service continues to evaluate mission package procurement, but was unable to give specific numbers.

Landon Hutchens, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman, said the program office has “a plan that is interdependent with other mission system program offices to field ever increasing capability until each of the three mission packages reach a full operational capability” in 2012.

In 2001, the LCS was proposed as a hull and 2 mission modules for $440 million. I'll be impressed if the hull without any modules costs less than $440 million per now.