Defense Secretary Carter cuts Navy ship order

In a Dec. 14 memo, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter directed Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to reduce the number of littoral combat ships from 52 to 40, to buy only one ship in each of the next four years and to pick one supplier.

A report in Defense News said the program uses two designs -- a 2,800-ton Independence class built by Austal USA in Mobile and a 3,300-ton Freedom class produced by Lockheed Martin in Marinette, Wis.

A report in Defense News said 1-1-1-1-2 profile outlined in the memo "would provide for one ship each year in 2017-2020 and two ships in 2021, the end of the current future years defense plan."

Carter instead directs the Navy to reallocate the money to buy more F/A-18 and F-35 aircraft and more SM-6 surface-to-air missiles, and to support Virginia Payload Module development for future Virginia-class submarines.

According to the Defense News, the Pentagon also considered cancelling the third ship of the DDG 1000 class -- the Lyndon B. Johnson, which was awarded to Maine's Bath Iron Works -- but appears to have decided in favor of keeping the ship.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Defense Secretary Carter cuts Navy ship order ."