WASHINGTON — The Navy hopes to have new frigates based on an American design “in the water” in 2028, a senior service official said today, an aggressive new schedule following the service’s cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate.
“We believe the future frigate can be in the water in 2028,” Jason Potter, the Navy’s acting acquisition executive, told attendees today at the Defense Forum here in Washington. He said the service was focused on using a design approach that separates finalizing the ship’s design from the construction of the lead ship, a path the Navy is taking with its new Medium Landing Ship.
The Navy announced late last month it would terminate Fincantieri Marinette Marine’s contract for four of six frigates the company was slated to build. In their place, the Navy said it would pursue a new class of vessels and provide Fincantieri with piecemeal work from other programs to keep the shipyard afloat, but details about what that looked like were not immediately clear.
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Then at last weekend’s Reagan National Defense Forum, Navy Secretary John Phelan said the new frigate would be based on an American design and stressed that any change orders would have to go through him. (The Navy has taken severe criticism by lawmakers and outside observers for making an excessive number of design changes to the Constellation-class frigate, which experts argue led to its schedule problems and cost overruns.)
Phelan also recently told attendees at a private dinner that the new frigate would be a modified National Security Cutter, two sources who heard the comments told Breaking Defense. Asked about Phelan’s private comments, a Navy spokesperson deferred to the secretary’s social media posts about the new frigate and declined to comment further.
HII has been building a National Security Cutter (NSC) for the US Coast Guard. During the original frigate competition, the company proposed a modified version of that ship for what would become the Constellation class. A spokesperson for HII told Breaking Defense the company is “aware of the developments on the frigate and cannot specifically comment about the NSC.”
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“However, like our CEO Chris Kastner has stated, we’re going to build what the Navy wants us to build. Regarding the original frigate competition, we did bid a variation of the NSC that was lethal, low risk, and affordable. We look forward to partnering with the Navy on designs for the ships they need,” the spokesperson added.
Potter declined to elaborate on the acquisition strategy for selecting a new frigate design and shipbuilders but said the Navy and Coast Guard are “very close” on shipbuilding.
“We’re in continuous communication about one thing or another with the Coast Guard and I’d say it’s probably too early make any declarative statements,” he said.