Less than a month after canceling its Constellation-class frigate project due to delays and cost overruns, the U.S. Navy has advanced its future landing ship programme by selecting the LST-100 design as a baseline, developed by the Dutch company DAMEN. According to reports, the service invested roughly $3.3 million to acquire technical data for the design, and has even assigned a name for the class once introduced into service: the McClung class.
In a statement issued by NAVSEA on the matter: “The U.S. Navy has selected the LST-100 design for the Landing Ship Medium (LSM) program, enabling the rapid fielding of this urgently needed capability for our Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps. By leveraging a mature, no-development design and strategic engineering, we are shortening acquisition timelines and ensuring our forces have the littoral mobility they need when they need it.”
The emphasis on using a baseline design that allows rapid implementation without major design changes was also mentioned by the Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, who took part in the Reagan National Defense Forum over the weekend. He said any attempt to implement modifications to the ship will have to pass through his desk, and will be reviewed by a shipbuilding programme manager selected by the service; that manager will also select a suitable builder for production. Current plans call for an order of between 18 and 35 ships, and it is expected that more than one shipyard will be chosen to construct them.
This approach reflects, at least initially, lessons learned from the Constellation programme mentioned above. Its cancellation, as reported in November, was attributed to technical problems and consequent cost increases linked to the design changes the Navy sought to impose on the original baseline offered by Fincantieri. Examples included requirements for a larger hull, propeller changes to reduce acoustic signature, and alterations to top-side sensors to accommodate domestically produced equipment.
It should also be noted that the design concept described by Secretary Phelan is still under review by the U.S. Congress and is included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. Media reports say congressional approval of the proposal would allow the Navy to proceed with building the first eight McClung-class ships under a programme-manager structure, making this a key decision for the programme’s near-term future.
Image credits: DAMEN
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