The American Made Corvette

As most of us know, the US does build naval corvettes, just not for the US Navy. The first of four intended for Egypt is in the news. Here is a bit from the VT Halter Marine, Inc. press release.

VT Halter Marine, Inc. (VT Halter Marine), a subsidiary of VT Systems, Inc. (VT Systems), held a dedication ceremony for the first of four Fast Missile Craft (FMC) built for the Egyptian Navy at its Pascagoula shipyard. The keel for this first FMC was authenticated on April 7, 2010.

Chris Cavas has more at Defense News.

Construction of the ship began in a newly built fabrication facility at VT Halter in November 2009 under a U.S. Navy Foreign Military Sales program managed by the U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command.

The original contract for the program was awarded to VT Halter in November 2005. Since then, the U.S. has awarded the shipbuilder more than $800 million for the ships.

The Ezzat is expected to leave Mississippi for Egypt during 2012.

Construction continues on the other three ships: F. Zekry, M. Fahmy and A. Gad. The last ship is contracted for delivery in December 2013.

Something caught my attention here. The previously reported cost of this ship is off by over 100%, as the vessels were originally expected to cost $100 million each but have suffered a great deal of cost overruns.

If you ever wanted to know what ~$220 million in FY05 dollars buys, which is what the Littoral Combat Ship was originally supposed to be, this is what you get: 500 tons, 8 days at sea, 2000nm range, and even 41 knots.