Saudi Arabia a ‘Promising Customer’ for Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ship

Saudi Arabia could be a promising customer for Lockheed Martin’s Littoral Combat Ship, the ninth of which will be launched for the US Navy today.

Christened as the USS Little Rock, the vessel, built by Lockheed Martin and Marinette Marine Corp., is one of 13 Freedom-class littoral combat ships (LCS) under contract to Lockheed.

At 40 knots top speed, it is one of the fastest large ships in the US Navy and can carry a plethora of weapons besides helicopters and UAVs.

Regarding the international market for the LCS, Joe North, vice president of littoral ships and systems at Lockheed Martin was quoted as saying ahead of the launch that over 20 countries have contacted the US Navy with interest.

There has been some interest in the Middle East and there’s interest in Southeast Asia right now,” he was quoted as saying in National Defence magazine. “The deployment of Freedom and Forth Worth  (the first two ships in the LCS line), I think it generated a lot of that. Those countries  getting to see how those ships perform.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the “more promising” countries but there is nothing formal yet, he said.

Marinette currently has seven of the Freedom-class ships in production at its Wisconsin facility. LCS 11, known as the USS Sioux City, will launch later this year. LCS 13, 15 and 17 are in production. LCS 19 and LCS 21 are under contract. A contract for LCS 23 should be signed by the end of this year, North said.

Lockheed is working on reducing the vessel’s weight. Freedom-class ships average at about 3,400 tons, down about 5% from the first LCS weight.

The ship is equipped to deploy aviation assets, manned and unmanned vehicles and sensors in support of mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, or surface warfare missions.