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May 17 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin was awarded a $12.7 million contract for post-delivery work on the USS St. Louis, a littoral combat ship. The contract exercises an option for class design and the post-delivery support, the U.S. State Department announced Friday.
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Lockheed Martin will perform the planning and implementation of deferred design changes identified during the construction period. The corrections and upgrades support St. Louis Sailaway and follow-on post-delivery test and trials period.
Fifty-seven percent of the work will be performed in Marinette, Wis.; 14 percent in Hampton, Va.; 11 percent in Moorestown, N.J., and San Diego; as well as 7 percent in the District of Columbia.
It is expected to be completed by December 2020.
Navy fiscal 2014 and 2013 shipbuilding and conversion funding in the amount of $7.5 million will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Last December, the U.S. Navy christened the ship in Marinette, the 10th Freedom-class LCS built by Lockheed Martin's Fincantieri Marinette Marine. In all, six Freedom-class ships are under construction and two are in the pre-production phase, according to the U.S. Navy.
The St. Louis is the 19th littoral combat ship to be christened by the Navy, including the Independence class.
Marinette was contracted for construction of the St. Louis in 2010, with the vessel receiving its name in April 2015 and its keel laid in May 2017. The ship's sponsor is Barbara Taylor, wife of Andy Taylor, the chairman of Enterprise Holdings, the St. Louis-based rental car company.
The new ship is meant to be a focused-mission platform for near-shore environments, in addition to open-ocean missions, and is designed to counter threats that include mines, submarines and fast surface craft.
