Navy releases final FFG(X) RFP

The Navy released the final conceptual design (CD) request for proposals (RFP) Nov. 7 for its new future frigate program, the Guided-Missile Frigate (FFG(X)), in a post on the FedBizOpps website. In October, Naval Sea Systems Command issued a pre-solicitation notice outlining the uses and capabilities for the new frigate. A summer Request for Information (RFI) named the capabilities the Navy is seeking and what it is looking to divide ship operations into three phases from lower level missions to high-end ship demands. Frigate construction will occur in American shipyards. Potential contractors must have an initial parent design to begin. “The parent design is a really interesting thing, because that means you're not going to a white board with a wish list of requirements, you're starting out with stuff that’s already been proven,” said Huntington Ingalls Industries’ President/CEO Mike Petters. The parent design is “pretty exciting for us,” he continued. “We know how to do that.” In August, Petters said HII may compete for the FFG(X) using the Coast Guard National Security Cutter (NSC) depending on how requirements work out. The program Executive Office for Littoral Combat Ships’ Frigate Program Office will host an unclassified Industry Day on Nov. 17 at Alion Science and Technology’s office in Washington, D.C., to provide information related to the FFG(X) CD phase requirements and objectives to interested contractors, the notice noted. The FFG(X) was originally a follow-on step to the LCS, but is now open to a wider set of domestic and international hulls. The frigate is expected to have a service life of 25 years, and a crew of up to 200. (Source: Defense Daily 11/08/17) Gulf Coast Note: HII-Ingalls’ shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., has built multiple Coast Guard National Security Cutters, Amphibious Transport Docks and Amphibious Assault ships. Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala., builds the Independence variant of LCS.