Marinette Marine Corp. launched the USS Milwaukee late last year, the United States’ fifth littoral combat ship. President Barack Obama’s nomination of Robert Work as deputy defense secretary could provide a lift to the shipbuilding program. Credit: Michael Sears

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The U.S. Navy's littoral combat ship program, which has created thousands of shipbuilding jobs in Wisconsin, may soon have a powerful ally in Washington with the nomination of Robert Work as deputy defense secretary.

As Navy undersecretary, Work was a top advocate for the $34 billion program, which has been widely criticized for everything from cost overruns to performance and reliability of the ships.

President Barack Obama nominated Work to replace Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine Fox, who recently directed the Navy to curtail its acquisition of littoral combat ships from 52 to 32 vessels. Currently, Work is chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday for Work's nomination, where he may be asked about his position on the littoral combat ship program.

Tuesday, officials from the Navy and defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. were in Milwaukee to prepare for Thursday's keel-laying ceremony of the USS Sioux City at the Marinette Marine shipyard and the commissioning of the USS Milwaukee in the spring of 2015.

Work's nomination is encouraging, said Joe North, vice president of the littoral combat ship program at Lockheed Martin.

"He has been a great advocate for the program and did a lot of digging deep into understanding the whole concept and need for it," North said.

Two of the warships have been built in Marinette and four more are under construction. A radically different version of the ship is being built in equal numbers by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.

The Navy envisions a fleet of fast vessels that can operate in waters as shallow as 20 feet and reach speeds topping 46 mph. The 377-foot ships could be used to hunt submarines, search for underwater mines and launch unmanned drones.

Navy officials say they're committed to acquiring the 52-ship fleet, even as Fox has directed them to limit the acquisition to 32 ships.

The Navy has fended off critics of the littoral combat ship program, which could provide work at the Marinette shipyard for many years.

Questions have been raised about the ships' mission and defenses. The reliability of the first three vessels, including USS Freedom, has also been questioned.

Lockheed Martin and the Navy say it's common for any new system to have glitches and they're confident many of the technical issues have been resolved.

"We found out what worked and didn't work. The good news is we have taken the lessons learned and rolled them into (the next ships). It's not like the Navy is having to deal with the same problems hull after hull," North said.

The ships are adaptable to new tactics and technologies, and they're affordable, said retired Vice Adm. Dirk Debbink of the Navy Reserve and commissioning committee chairman for USS Milwaukee.

"You can put four of these ships out there for the price of one Burke-class destroyer. At some point, quantity does become necessary...if we are to provide the kind of forward presence we need, literally, all around the globe," Debbink said.

If Work is named deputy defense secretary and continues to support the littoral combat ship program, it would mean a reversal of Fox's position. If he changes his stance, it could undermine the program.

When he was Navy undersecretary, Work wrote a paper for the Navy War College entitled "The Littoral Combat Ship: How We Got There And Why."

In that paper, he dished out praise and addressed criticisms.

"Perhaps no ship in recent memory has been subject to more criticism than the littoral combat ship. Many think LCS is the 'wrong ship at the wrong time,'" Work wrote.

"The Department of the Navy is well aware of the mistakes it made in the early stages of the LCS program. While getting LCS into service quickly may have been a worthy goal, the mistakes made and problems encountered in building the ships, and the department's resulting inability to restrain program costs, tell a cautionary tale. ...Simply put, the department should never again repeat the short cuts or questionable shipbuilding approaches taken in the LCS program," he wrote.

Despite a rocky start, the littoral combat ships could soon be in use in large numbers.

"After a decade of twists and turns, the Navy is getting very nearly exactly the ship it asked for," Work wrote, adding that it's affordable and reconfigurable for different missions.

Several hundred design changes have been made to the ships since they were introduced.

Other shipbuilding programs haven't been able to accomplish as much in only a few years, according to the Navy, which also says foreign governments are interested in the littoral combat ships in their fleets.

"There were a lot of things done quickly and a bit on-the-fly because we needed to get the ship in production. But we should stop beating ourselves up...This ship has done very well," Debbink said.