A new U.S. Navy report estimates that repairing the faulty combining gear on Freedom-class littoral combat ships could cost between $8 million and $10 million per ship, reaching a total of $56 million to $70 million for the vessels listed in the report, Breaking Defense wrote on Thursday.
According to the Navy report, the overall projected costs exclude vessels that are being delivered to the service branch with the fix implemented and earliest LCS units that have not yet been approved to undergo repairs.
Lockheed Martin and the service branch will each pay 50 percent of the cost for fixing the combining gear, which links the ship’s diesel engines to gas turbines that generate additional power.
The Navy submitted the report to Congress in June in accordance with a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023.
A spokesperson for Lockheed told the publication that the defense contractor “continues to work with the U.S. Navy on cost allocation in accordance with the provisions of the contract for the delivered ships (LCS 5-19).”
