On 29 May the US Government Accountability Officer (GAO) released its 52 page report, Navy Frigate: Unstable Design Has Stalled Construction and Compromised Delivery Schedules into the US Navy’s 20 ship Constellation class program.
In the report the GAO said that when the US Navy planned to acquire guided missile frigates, it took steps aimed at delivering these ships faster. For example, to reduce the risk of design and technology problems, it chose to use many technologies that had already been proven on other ships. However, the GAO says the US Navy undercut this approach by starting construction on the first frigate before finishing its design, among other missteps. This design instability has caused weight growth.
Delays in completing the ship design have created mounting construction delays. The US Navy acknowledges that the April 2026 delivery date, set in the contract at award, is unachievable. The lead frigate is forecast to be delivered 36 months later than initially planned. The GAO says the Navy’s Constellation Class Program Office tracks and reports design progress, but its design stability metric hinges largely on the quantity—rather than quality—of completed design documents. This limits insight into whether the program’s schedule is achievable. If the US Navy begins construction on the second frigate without improving this metric, it risks repeating the same errors that resulted in construction disruptions and delays with the lead frigate.
The frigate class is using many mission systems already proven on Navy ships. However, the Navy has yet to demonstrate two systems; the propulsion and machinery control systems. A planned update to the frigate test plan, combined with the opportunity afforded by schedule delay, could offer the Navy the chance to conduct land-based testing of these two unproven systems. This testing would reduce the risk of discovering issues after the ship is at sea.
The GAO says the frigate is using a traditional, linear development approach for design and construction. The US Navy has historically experienced schedule delays, cost growth, or both in prior shipbuilding programs using this approach. The US Navy has incorporated elements of leading practices into its acquisition strategy. However, further incorporating these practices in an updated acquisition strategy could position the program, when contracting for future frigates, to better respond to evolving mission needs.
The has made five recommendations for the Secretary of the Navy to improve program delivery, they are:
- He should ensure that the frigate program’s functional design review practices and metrics be restructured to measure progress that reflects the quality rather than the quantity of design deliverables received from the shipbuilder.
- He should ensure that the restructured functional design review practices and metrics established under recommendation 1 be used to assess whether the functional design is complete prior to beginning construction of the second frigate (FFG 63).
- He should ensure that the detail design for any given grand module of lead and follow-on frigates be completed prior to beginning construction of that grand module, consistent with leading ship design practices.
- He, as part of the planned revision of the frigate Test and Evaluation Master Plan, should ensure that the plan incorporates additional land-based testing activities for the propulsion system and machinery centralized control system and schedules those activities on a timeline that realistically accounts for anticipated lead ship delivery delays.
- He, prior to acquiring an 11th frigate, should ensure that the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition review the frigate program’s acquisition strategy to identify opportunities to incorporate leading practices for product development and update that strategy, as appropriate.
The full report can be downloaded at: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-24-106546.pdf
