Constellation class FFG(X)-US Future Frigate program

[Haijun watcher]

Defense News

With a second frigate yard competition on the horizon, Austal USA moves to add steel shipbuilding
By: Joe Gould and David B. Larter ? 3 days ago
WASHINGTON ? Austal USA has broken ground on a steel production line in Mobile, Ala., as the Navy winds down its aluminum-hulled shipbuilding programs and plans on larger numbers of smaller ships.

The company, a subsidiary of the Australia-based Austal, makes the Navy�s expeditionary fast transport and the Independence-class littoral combat ship, . The company will be ready to start building steel hulls by next April, an upgrade that is expected to position it for future competitions.

�As demand for the greater and larger Navy and Coast Guard fleets grows, Austal USA is investing to meet those changing requirements,� Rusty Murdaugh, the company�s interim president, said in a statement on Friday. �We�re investing in our people, we�re investing in our processes and we�re investing in our facilities and capabilities.�
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[Haijun watcher]

Naval News

NAVSEA Builds New Frigate Readiness Digital Model in Advance of Construction
Even before the hull of the first new Constellation-class Frigate (FFG), USS Constellation (FFG 62), is laid, a cross-warfare center team is developing a digital platform to predict whether its systems are ready for its mission before it leaves port.
Naval News Staff 19 Apr 2021
NAVSEA press release
That platform is known as the total ship Frigate Readiness Assessment Model (FRAM). Members of Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Port Hueneme Division (PHD) are developing and testing FRAM with input from NSWC Corona in Norco, California and NSWC Carderock in Bethesda, Maryland.
FRAM implements a holistic modeling and simulation approach for acquisition and sustainment of ships� systems and parts using the same toolset as the soon-to-launch Model Based Product Support (MBPS) platform. It also makes use of existing data sets and digital models of various combat systems that have already been identified to be used on the new frigate.
The FFG Program Office Readiness Working Group (PMS 515L) is overseeing the FRAM project under Program Executive Office, Unmanned and Small Combatants.
�The importance of FRAM is applying MBPS at a total ship level in acquisition, which will serve as foundation and baseline when the ship transitions to its lifecycle,� said Bob Howard, the acquisition supportability manager in NSWC PHD�s Littoral Strike and Warfare Department. Howard is leading the FRAM team at the command, which will serve as the in-service engineering agent (ISEA) for the new ship class.

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[Haijun watcher]

Hmm...at what number of frigates in the class will procurement costs reach "economies of scale"?

Military.com

The Navy Will Pay $554M for Another Next-Gen Frigate, Called USS Congress
21 May 2021
Military.com | By Gina Harkins
A year after the Navy issued a contract to begin production of the first frigate in the new Constellation class, officials announced the service will spend another $554 million for a second small-surface combatant.
The Wisconsin-based Fincantieri Marinette Marine was awarded a contract Thursday to build the future guided-missile frigate Congress. It will be the second new Navy vessel named in honor of George Washington's six original frigates.
"As the second ship of the Constellation Class Frigate Program, the USS Congress will provide a highly capable, next-generation surface combatant that our Navy and Nation needs," Capt. Kevin Smith, major program manager for the Constellation-class frigates, said in a statement following the announcement.
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[Haijun watcher]

They had better build more than 10 in total...there were 71 Perry class frigates and 46 Knox class built so they have big shoes to fill.

Defense News

Fincantieri dedicates all its US shipyards for Navy frigate orders
By: Tom Kington ? 4 days ago

The U.S. Navy's future frigate is based on the Italian FREMM, shown here underway off the coast of Virginia during its 2018 deployment to the East Coast. (Staff)

ROME � Fincantieri is to use all three of its U..S shipyards to build new FFG(X) frigates and will hire 600 more staff by year-end to handle the work, a company official said following the U.S. Navy�s order for a second vessel out of a potential 10 in total.

The $553.9 million contract for the second Constellation-class guided-missile frigate was awarded Thursday to Fincantieri Marinette Marine based in Marinette, Wisconsin. The shipyard has experience building Freedom-class littoral combat ships for the Navy.

As opposed to the LCS program, work on the new frigate will also take place at two other Great Lakes sites controlled by Italian parent firm Fincantieri: Sturgeon Bay yard Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, which focuses on commercial shipping, and Green Bay yard Fincantieri ACE Marine, which specializes in aluminum vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard.

�With this step forward, we will keep pace with the program by building some sections [of the frigates] at Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay,� said Dario Deste, president and CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group.


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[maxim]

But the Knox and OHP were built during the Cold War - not now, in very different political and economical conditions. Not even a president who declared that he would like to increase the size of the US Navy significantly, actually provided the means to achieve that.

/edit: The Knox and OHP were also really cheap, austere designs - more similar in some aspects to the LCS than the Constellation class.

[Roberto]

They had better build more than 10 in total...there were 71 Perry class frigates and 46 Knox class built so they have big shoes to fill.

Defense News

Fincantieri dedicates all its US shipyards for Navy frigate orders
By: Tom Kington ? 4 days ago

The U.S. Navy's future frigate is based on the Italian FREMM, shown here underway off the coast of Virginia during its 2018 deployment to the East Coast. (Staff)

ROME � Fincantieri is to use all three of its U..S shipyards to build new FFG(X) frigates and will hire 600 more staff by year-end to handle the work, a company official said following the U.S. Navy�s order for a second vessel out of a potential 10 in total.

The $553.9 million contract for the second Constellation-class guided-missile frigate was awarded Thursday to Fincantieri Marinette Marine based in Marinette, Wisconsin. The shipyard has experience building Freedom-class littoral combat ships for the Navy.

As opposed to the LCS program, work on the new frigate will also take place at two other Great Lakes sites controlled by Italian parent firm Fincantieri: Sturgeon Bay yard Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, which focuses on commercial shipping, and Green Bay yard Fincantieri ACE Marine, which specializes in aluminum vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard.

�With this step forward, we will keep pace with the program by building some sections [of the frigates] at Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay,� said Dario Deste, president and CEO of Fincantieri Marine Group.


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Ha! I went trough undergraduate Naval Aviator training with Dario.

[Haijun watcher]

Seapower Magazine

Navy Still Plans to Start New Frigate Construction in April 2022
Posted on January 19, 2022 by John M. Doyle, Seapower Correspondent
Then-Secretary of the Navy Kenneth J. Braithwaite announces USS Constellation (FFG 62) as the name for the first ship in the new guided missile frigate class of ships while aboard the museum ship Constellation in Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Md., Oct. 7, 2020. U.S. NAVY / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Levingston Lewis

ARLINGTON, Va. � As the first new U.S. Navy frigate works its way through detailed and functional design phases, officials still plan an April start for building the lead ship of the Constellation class.

�Right now, as far as construction, we�re targeting that date,� Capt. Kevin Smith, the frigate program manager told a briefing at the Surface Navy Association annual symposium. However, �there could be some risk to that [during the detailed design phase] but we�re looking hard at that,� he said, adding, �the one thing that we want to make sure of is, that we don�t start building a ship where the design is not mature.�

After the design phases are completed, a critical design review and a production readiness review are slated to follow in fiscal 2022. Only �then, when we�re ready� will construction begin on what will become the USS Constellation guided missile frigate (FFG 62), Smith told the Jan. 11 briefing.

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