Lockheed Martin has received a $2.3 million foreign military sales contract from the Navy to continue concept and design work for an Israeli version of Littoral Combat Ship, which will be called LCS-I.

During the nine-month combat system configuration phase, Lockheed Martin will examine the combat system performance of LCS-I using two different radar options: the advanced radar under development by Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Lockheed Martin’s SPY-1F radar. The team will examine the performance of these two radar options using the COMBATSS-21 combat management system integrated with the Israeli Navy Command and Control (IC2) system and develop the technical architecture, high level specifications and estimated costs to integrate COMBATSS-21 with IC2 and multiple Israeli and U.S. sensor and weapon systems including the MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS), Typhoon gun and Barak missile. Lockheed Martin is currently partnered with Rafael Armament Systems, Elbit Systems and Ness on LCS-I.

Lockheed Martin received an initial contract from the Israeli Navy in February 2006 to perform a feasibility study for a multi-mission LCS variant. The study, successfully completed in April 2007, resulted in the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) decision to approve initial funding for two multi-mission ships currently based on an LCS-I design that would include anti-air, anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-missile warfare missions, as well as special operations. LCS-I combines the speed, flexibility and survivability of the U.S. Navy LCS with a multi-mission combat system.

The LCS-I variant leverages the flexibility of the U.S. Navy design and the mission module space to provide multi-mission capability. LCS-I’s propulsion system is a combined diesel and gas turbine with steerable waterjets. The weapon systems aboard LCS-I include the STANDARD Missile 2, Harpoon and MK 32 torpedo tubes and selected Israeli Navy systems.