While Mobile shipbuilder Austal is steaming ahead with building Littoral Combat Ships, the Navy is already looking ahead to a new class of frigate that clouds the future for the LCS program.

Some see the new ships as superseding the LCS, making it irrelevant by overcoming its fundamental limitations. Others dispute that, saying the two ships will complement each other in the future, with both playing important roles in a new concept of fleet engagement.

The new frigate might end up being a burlier version of an existing LCS design, or it might not - and that's a question whose answer will have profound ramifications for Austal and, by extension, for Alabama.

Either way, Austal plans to be in the game, Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle said in an interview with AL.com.

In early October, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson approved the requirements for the new frigate program. The next step was for the Navy to issue a Request for Proposals for designs meeting those criteria, which it did on Tuesday.

Based on the ongoing discussion and the requirements approved in early October, Perciavalle said he expected Austal could provide a strong response to the RFP.

"What we're seeing is that the requirements are very much in line with where we are today," the Austal USA chief said in late October. "With the exception of adding increased capability on the ship. So that, actually, we feel it is a good thing for us and we feel we have a pretty strong competitive advantage there. Because we're able to provide a solution on a ship that's already being built."

As the Navy's oft-controversial Littoral Combat Ship program approaches the end of its construction run, the Navy is looking to follow it with a new class of frigates. If it picks a design based on Austal Inc.'s LCS, the frigates will be built in Mobile. Shown: LCS 10 is guided along the Mobile River. (Courtesy of Austal)

Not all observers agree; the Navy's concept has been described as "a major departure" from the LCS. But it's obviously close enough for Austal to make a pitch, and the company definitely has one.

Austal's proposed frigate would be built on the same seaframe as the LCS, Perciavalle said. That means all the experience the company has gained with the LCS program will carry over - meaning it can get to work quickly and with confidence.

"The fact that the Navy has kept the capability requirements relatively consistent with what we've seen in the past, we feel puts us in a pretty darn good place going forward," Perciavalle said. "That being said, we do know there's other ships out there and other options that they'll look at. That's only the prudent thing for them to do. It's not something that scares us by any means, and quite frankly we're still in the competitive mode. So it is what it is, whether it just be competing with Lockheed or competing with others. It hasn't changed our mindset."

"It does depend on the finalized requirements, which we haven't seen yet. But what I'll say is, our frigate looks almost identical to our LCS with the exception of additional weapons and sensors on the deck," he said. "And that's the benefit and the beauty of where we are today."

The frigate competition will continue into 2019, with the current expectation being that the first contract will be awarded in 2020. The Navy has indicated that it envisions a production run of 20 ships. That would be another decade of work for the Mobile shipyard.

Spelling out the FFG(X)

In FFG(X), the FF is for Fast Frigate, the G is for guided missile, the (X) is for Experimental. The general idea is a class that's a big brother to the LCS: Still fast, but somewhat burlier. The initial fast-track idea was to base it on the LCS and, in fact, to upgrade some LCS orders to frigates.

Prior to a review in 2014, the game plan was to build 52 LCSs. A Congressional Research Service report dated Oct. 3 explains how that has evolved: "The February 2014 restructuring changed the program into one for procuring 32 LCSs and 20 FFs. A second program restructuring that was directed in December 2015 by then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter reduced the program's total planned procurement to 40 ships, to consist of either 28 LCSs and 12 FFs, or 30 LCSs and 10 FFs, depending on exactly when production would shift from LCSs to FFs. The December 2015 restructuring also directed the Navy to reduce the planned procurement rate of the program from about three ships per year to one or two ships per year." There's also been a threat to switch from two LCS designs to one after 2019.

But what will the Fast Frigate be? Will it literally be a beefed-up version of Austal's Independence-class LCS and/or Lockheed Martin's Freedom-class LCS?

That was certainly the idea until late 2016 and spring 2017, when the GAO got really vocal about suggesting that Congress and the Navy slow down and think things over. "The Navy's current acquisition approach for its new frigate -- a ship based on a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) design with minor modifications -- requires Congress to make significant program decisions and commitments in 2017 without key cost, design, and capability knowledge," the GAO warned in April.

In May, the Navy changed the timetable, saying it won't award the frigate contract until 2020, after a longer evaluation process to pick the design. In July it issued a "Request for Information" on frigate proposals and held an "industry day" session to discuss the concept.

Reading between the lines, some saw a message that the Navy no longer was married to the idea that the frigate had to be based on the LCS. That spawned some colorful headlines, such as "Did the U.S. Navy Just Admit the Littoral Combat Ship is a Failure?" and "The Navy Is Looking for a New Frigate to Replace the Troubled Littoral Combat Ship."

Those are clearly overstated: The Navy is still paying for new LCSs, and whatever form the frigate takes, the two ships both will be in action for decades to come. However, it does seem that the Navy is newly open to FFG(X) designs that aren't LCS-derived. Popular Mechanics reported that "Shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has two designs for a new frigate based on the National Security Cutter it builds for the U.S. Coast Guard." The magazine also suggested that "A number of foreign designs could end up being dark horse candidates in the FFG(X) competition as well."

Likewise, www.defensenews.com reported that the Navy query "opens the door to almost any existing design that can be adapted to the Navy's needs, which extends beyond just the two LCS hull forms being built by Lockheed Martin and Austal USA."

"There's no doubt that the Navy has opened up discussions or thoughts on seeing what other options exist out there," Perciavalle said. But, he said, it doesn't look like the Navy has changed its mind about what it wants.

"We're putting ourselves in the position to build the remaining LCSs and all the frigates," Perciavalle said. "And we're going to put our best foot forward to be able to do that, and we feel we're in a good position to be able to do so."