Italian shipbuilding major Fincantieri, through its U.S. subsidiary Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), has been awarded a contract worth over $1 billion to build the fifth and sixth Constellation-class frigates for the U.S. Navy.
The contract for the lead frigate and nine options, signed in 2020, has a cumulative value of $5.5 billion, including post-delivery availability support and crew training.
Fincantieri’s proposal is based on the FREMM frigate platform, the backbone of a 10-unit program for the Italian Navy which Fincantieri is completing at present at its Italian shipyards.
Construction on the first frigate, the future USS Constellation, is currently ongoing at the newly revamped Wisconsin shipyard in Marinette. A keel-laying ceremony for the vessel was held in April this year.
The Constellation-class guided-missile frigate is a next-generation small surface combatant. This ship class will be an agile, multi-mission warship capable of operations in both blue-water and littoral environments, providing increased combat-credible forward presence that provides a military advantage at sea.
FFG 62 will be fielded with multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, and electromagnetic maneuver warfare. These capabilities include an Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), Baseline Ten (BL10) Aegis Combat System, an Mk 41 Vertical Launch System, communications systems, countermeasures and added capability in the electronic warfare/information operations area.
The future ships will be Constellation (FFG 62), Congress (FFG 63), Chesapeake (FFG 64), and Lafayette (FFG 65).
FMM is committed to the Littoral Combat Ships program for the US Navy and the Multi-Mission Surface Combatants (MMSC) program for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as part of the US Foreign Military Sales plan.