On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the U.S. Navy’s technical command, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, signed a 282,885,933 USD contract with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), part of Northrop Grumman Corporation, to prepare the necessary shipyard infrastructure for the construction program for new guided-missile frigates, codenamed FF(X).
Photo: Huntington Ingalls Industries
The work will be performed at HII’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by April 2028. The initial funding comes from U.S. Navy shipbuilding and conversion funds under the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), amounting to 59,092,397 USD (73%), and FY 2026 research, development, test, and evaluation funds amounting to 21,500,339 USD (27%). These funds will be obligated at the time of contract award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on September 30, 2026.
According to the contractor’s press release, the contract will enable HII Ingalls Shipbuilding to procure long-lead materials, conduct design work, and begin pre-construction activities on the first ship.
As a reminder, on November 25, 2025, then-U.S. Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan announced the cancellation of the Future Guided Missile Frigate program, known by the acronym FFG(X), which would have continued construction of the Constellation-class guided-missile frigates, in favor of a new program codenamed FF(X). Announced in December, FF(X) is to be based on the design of the smaller Legend-class National Security Cutters of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), of which 10 were built and delivered between 2008 and 2024.
“We are proud of our past performance in engineering, design and production of warships that meet U.S. military standards, a performance that gave the Navy confidence to select the national security cutter as the basis for the next small surface combatant and to choose Ingalls as the program’s lead yard,” said Brian Blanchette, Ingalls Shipbuilding president. “We are excited to partner with the Navy to bring these preproduction steps under contract to accelerate delivery of the frigates that our warfighters need.”
Under this contract, HII Ingalls Shipbuilding will begin preparations for design and production work, as well as the overall build-sequence plan for the first frigate. This new approach will enable a smooth transition from design to production at Ingalls Shipbuilding and, ultimately, across the industrial base.
The new frigates will be built on production lines that are currently used for Arleigh Burke Flight III-class guided-missile destroyers, America-class amphibious assault ships, San Antonio Flight II-class amphibious transport docks, and modernization work on Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers.
To meet the U.S. Navy’s urgent requirement and support the construction of next-generation platforms, Ingalls Shipbuilding has invested more than 1 billion USD in modernizing its infrastructure, facilities, and tooling. HII as a whole is actively working to expand U.S. shipbuilding capacity, including by increasing the number of distributed shipbuilding partners, cooperating with international manufacturers, and evaluating the possibility of opening another U.S. shipyard.
FF(X) missile frigate visualization / Image: US Navy
The U.S. Navy plans to procure 50 to 65 light guided-missile frigates under the FF(X) program. They are to be 128 m long, 16 m wide, have a draft of 6.7 m, and displace 4,750 t. They will be capable of speeds of up to 28 kt and a range of up to 12,000 nautical miles. They will be equipped with the Saab AN/SPS-77 Sea Giraffe radar, AN/SLQ-32C(V)6 electronic warfare system, and Mk 53 Mod 10 Nulka decoy launchers.
Their armament is to comprise a BAE Systems Bofors Mk 110 57 mm naval gun, a remotely operated weapon station with a 30 mm cannon, a 21-cell Mk 49 launcher for RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) surface-to-air missiles, and 16 launchers for RGM-184A Naval Strike Missiles (NSM), or 48 AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles for countering unmanned aircraft systems, or modular containerized payloads for various missions.
The first series of ships, Flight I, is not expected to include the Mark 56 Vertical Launching System (VLS) or anti-submarine warfare systems, although these have not been ruled out in the future.
Interestingly, the FF(X) concept somewhat resembles the 2012 Patrol Frigate offering from HII, which was also based on the Legend-class hull and had previously been offered to the U.S. Navy as an alternative to the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) light frigates. However, there are noticeable differences between the various concept renderings, including the size of the main superstructure and the gun turret. It is worth noting that the Patrol Frigate design included 12 Mk 56 VLS launch modules and an expanded sensor suite.
According to the U.S. Navy’s request under the draft FY 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) defense budget, the first FF(X) ship is expected to cost 1.429 billion USD and be delivered by June 2030.
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