The US Navy's Littoral Combat Ship programme has faced criticism for budget increases and constantly changing design requirements, but the security of fixed-price contracts is likely to lead to continued DoD funding. In an appropriately upbeat end to a year of resurgence for a frigate programme that had for so long been fraught with cost-hike revelations, construction challenges and the withdrawal of funding for additional hulls, the first Littoral Combat Ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), was on 8 November 2008 formally inducted into the US Navy in a ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although mounting financial concerns -brought on by the global economic crisis and a new administration's scrutiny of US defence spending - may yet presage drastic cuts to the navy's Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget, as JNI went to press the LCS programme was nonetheless poised to receive funding for two follow-on ships, LCS 3 and LCS 4, both of which were previously cut from production plans. Fears of continued lay-offs and production schedule gaps at the Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin - which built Freedom at the behest of prime contractor Lockheed Martin - were calmed on 2 March 2009 when the US Department of Defense (DoD) awarded the industry team an undisclosed sum of money to preserve production capabilities at Marinette while awaiting follow-on contract announcements, which are due in April.
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