Forget Sequester: The Navy Just Ordered Two More $440 Million Littoral Combat Ships

Austal

The maker of one type Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), Austal, yesterday announced two additional LCS orders from the Navy.

That means the company's order backlog grew by at least $681.7 million dollars.

The LCS has drawn criticism as it faced performance shortcomings and cost doubling to the point each ship now runs about $440 million.

David Lerman & Nick Taborek at Bloomberg considered the LCS a prime project to be cut back in sequestration, which fell March 1 and sliced budgets far and wide. The LCS is a 10-ship, approximately $3.5 billion project.

Yesterday's announcement puts the idea that LCS will be shelved to rest, and has Austal primed with work for years to come.

The Littoral Combat Ship is joked about inside the Navy as the "Little Crappy Ship". To be fair, the vessel represents an entirely new technological platform and should require sea trials to match that level of advancement.

Austal has also been contracted by the Navy to build ten 103-meter Joint High Speed Vessels. A $1.6 billion contract.

The company's workforce will, increase to 4,000 to Accomodate the incoming orders.