Textron: SSC contract by year’s end

Textron executives expect to win a production contract by the end of 2019 for the Navy’s new Ship-to-Shore Connector. The first SSC is about halfway through builder’s trials in south Louisiana, and delivery is expected by the end of this summer, said Scott Donnelly, Textron’s CEO. Textron’s SSC looks like the existing Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) currently used by the Navy and Marines to deliver personnel and equipment ashore. Textron’s version has a fly-by-wire control system, a new drive and propulsion system and more powerful engines, and is built with fewer parts, which is supposed to make manufacturing and maintenance easier. The Navy requested two Ship-to-Shore Connectors for $128M in the FY 2017 budget, three for $212M in FY-18, and five for $325M in FY-19. Since April, the House put $84.8M in its version of the FY-20 defense authorizations for SSCs. The Senate authorized $40.4Mn. A conference committee will determine the final funding level. (Source: USNI News 07/18/19) Gulf Coast Note: The first SSC (LCAC 100) got underway in a bayou near Textron’s Slidell, La., shipyard in April 2018. Official builder’s trials would soon follow. Textron Marine & Land Systems and L-3 Communications entered a deal to develop the next-generation landing craft in October 2009.