Rendering of Constellation (FFG-62). Fincantieri Image
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Navy is still working through a timeline to meet a congressional mandate to add Standard Missile 6 and the Tomahawk Cruise Missiles to future Constellation-class guided-missile frigates, service officials told USNI News.
A requirement from the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Navy Secretary to add SM-6s and Tomahawks to the Connies. The frigates, based on the Italian and French...
Rendering of USS Constellation (FFG-62). Fincantieri Marinette Image
THE PENTAGON – Fincantieri Marinette Marine will officially start building the first Constellation-class frigate at its yard in Marinette, Wis., today.
The start of fabrication comes nearly two and a half years after the Navy issued Fincantieri the detail design and construction award for the first frigate in April 2020.
After finishing the critical design review in May and the production readiness review in July, the Navy...
A Fincantieri Marinette Marine model of the proposed USS Constellation (FFG-62). USNI News Photo
The Navy has awarded a $537 million contract option to shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine for the third Constellation-class frigate, according to a Thursday Pentagon announcement.
The contract modification for the detail design and construction of Chesapeake (FFG-64) follows Constellation (FFG-62), awarded in 2020, and Congress (FFG-63), awarded in 2021.
Combined with government-furnished...
https://news.usni.org/2022/06/16/navy-awards-537m-option-for-third-constellation-frigate-chesapeake
Rendering of USS Constellation (FFG-62). Fincantieri Image
The Navy already has models of the Constellation-class frigate and the upcoming DDG(X) destroyer in the water at Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock in Maryland and is using a new set of engineering best practices to guide the development of both programs, several Navy officials explained last week.
The Fiscal Year 2020 defense bill ordered the Navy to create a senior technical authority for every ship class, who would be responsible...
Rendering of USS Constellation (FFG-62). Fincantieri Image
The first hull in a new Navy ship class in more than a decade is set to start construction later this year, the service’s program manager said this week.
Fincantieri Marinette Marine plans to start fabrication of the future USS Constellation (FFG-62) in late summer or early fall following the completion of the final design review of the plans for the ship, Capt. Kevin Smith, who oversees the program for the Navy, said on Tuesday. The ship...
Attack boat Vermont (SSN-792) float-off on March 29, 2019. General Dynamics Electric Boats Photo
This post is part of a series of stories looking back at the top naval news from 2020.
2020 may be among the most consequential years for Navy acquisition in recent memory, with the service making big moves in support of its Distributed Maritime Operations operating concept.
2020 was the year the Navy officially started construction on the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, a massive...
https://news.usni.org/2020/12/25/top-stories-2020-u-s-navy-acquisition
Defense Secretary Mark Esper tours the avenger class minesweeper USS Devastator, docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2020. DoD Photo
At the beginning of the year, the Navy and Marine Corps sent a new fleet plan to Pentagon leaders that called for relying on smaller ships and unmanned vessels to meet future missions and defeat future adversaries. The Pentagon rejected the plan.
Nine-months later, Pentagon leaders reached the same conclusion: the Navy needed to be more distributed...
The following is the Oct. 28, 2020 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Constellation (FFG-62) Class Frigate (Previously FFG[X]) Program: Background and Issues for Congress
From the report
The Constellation (FFG-62) class frigate program, previously known as the FFG(X) program, is a Navy program to build a class of 20 guided-missile frigates (FFGs). Congress funded the procurement of the first FFG-62 class ship in FY2020 at a cost of $1,281.2 million (i.e., about $1.3 billion). The Navy’s...
https://news.usni.org/2020/10/29/report-to-congress-on-constellation-class-frigate-program-ffg-62
Italian FREMM, the basis for the FFG-62 program. Fincantieri Marine Group Image
The lead ship in the Navy’s next-generation frigate class could cost $1.6 billion, a figure that is 40 percent above the service’s projections for the first-in-class vessel, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
A new report from CBO approximates the cost for the first 10 ships in the FFG-62 program, formerly FFG(X), at $12.3 billion.
“Using three other surface combatants—the Arleigh Burke Flight III, the...
https://news.usni.org/2020/10/14/cbo-says-navy-underestimated-cost-of-first-frigate-by-40-percent