LCS sale to Saudi Arabia approved

The State Department has approved an $11.25 billion sale of four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant Ships to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced today.

The combatants are "derivatives" of the U.S. Navy's Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship, according to the Oct. 20 DSCA statement. The Freedom version of the LCS is built by Lockheed Martin. The DSCA notified Congress of the potential sale on Oct. 19.

The Saudi government requested a full-up modernization program for the MMSC, the statement says. The sale includes program office support, as well as the study, design and construction of operations, according to the announcement.

The ships will use Lockheed's COMBATSS-21 Combat Management System, which the U.S. Navy is also planning to use on its future frigates.

In addition to the ships and the combat systems, the sale includes 523 tactical RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles; five Harpoon ship command launch control systems; eight Harpoon shipboard launchers; 48 Harpoon Block II missiles; five MK-15 Mod-31 SeaRAM close-in weapon systems;  (188) RIM 116C Block II Rolling Airframe Missiles; five MK-75 76mm OTO Melara Gun Systems; 48 50-caliber machine guns; and Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Global Positioning System/Precise Positioning Service (GPS/PPS) navigation equipment.