The U.S Navy has chosen HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division to design and build the future small surface combatant (SSC) ship.

Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, expressed his confidence in the Ingalls team to carry out the project to expand the country’s shipbuilding industrial base to meet the requirements of the Navy.

Another new class of ships, the FF(X), will be an important part of the fleet. They will be small in size and complement the larger, multi-mission warships to improve the operational efficiency of the U.S Navy in strategic waters around the world.

The FF(X) would be able to carry modular payloads and have automated systems allowing them to carry out an array of operations without much human intervention.

John C. Phelan, Secretary of the Navy, said that he directed the acquisition of a new frigate class based on HII’s Legend-Class National Security Cutter design, which has been quite successful in protecting the nation’s interests at home and abroad.

It is estimated that the first ship will be in the water by 2028.

Phelan also said that to expand capacity and production across the maritime industrial base, the ships will be acquired using a lead yard, and then they will go on to multi-yard construction.

Shipyards will be measured against their capacity to deliver the vessels to the U.S Navy, as fast as possible, to scale up construction and expand the fleet.

Small surface combatants come in handy to tackle many operations where large warships might not be needed.

The FF(X) will continue this and take on more routine tasks, enhancing the fleet’s operational flexibility, adaptability and mission readiness.

“Like the Medium Landing Ship, leveraging a complete design and production baseline approach will allow the Navy and shipbuilders to reduce costs, schedule and technical risk,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, 34th Chief of Naval Operations.

“We know this Frigate design works, we know it operates with the Fleet, and most importantly, we know how to build it now.”

FF (X) is designed to be cost-effective and unmatched in speed. Its design is based on HII’s proven Legend-Class National Security Cutter.

This would ensure that it is built faster and delivered to the U.S Navy, which is focusing on increasing the number of hulls to match the pace of China’s naval production.