“It’s been a great couple of weeks for our company and the Littoral Combat Ship program,” says Pat Roberts, USA Director of Operations for CAD/CAM software developer SSI. “There have been two exciting developments and I’m glad to have been a small part of them.”

“It’s been a great couple of weeks for our company and the Littoral Combat Ship program,” says Pat Roberts, USA Director of Operations for CAD/CAM software developer SSI. “There have been two exciting developments and I’m glad to have been a small part of them.”
Steady as she goes
On Thursday, April 28, 2016, the United States House of Congress Armed Services Committee, by a vote of 60-2, rejected calls to cut the LCS program from 52 ships to 40 and rejected the idea of down selecting from two ship classes to one.
This is good news for the more than 576 suppliers spread out across all 50 states that are involved in constructing these naval ships, including SSI USA.
Lockheed Martin, Gibbs & Cox, Marinette Marine Corp., Austal USA and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works have used and are using SSI’s ShipConstructor CAD/CAM software to design all the ships in both classes of this program.
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Roberts had previously visited legislators in Washington and talked about the negative economic impacts and the potential for inefficiencies in ship construction if the procurement plans were changed.
“It’s good to see that the committee was convinced,” Roberts says.
Christening Ceremony
On top of the good news coming out of Washington, Pat Roberts was also recently honored to be invited to the christening of the latest Independence class variant of the Littoral Combat Ship, LCS 14 Manchester. It was built by Austal USA, a longtime user of ShipConstructor software.
The ship is named after the largest city in New Hampshire. The Senior US Senator for the Granite State, Jeanne Shaheen, is the ship sponsor and as such, will be considered part of the ship’s crew until it is retired. Shaheen christened LCS 14 Manchester on May 7, 2016.