BAE Systems Maritime Solutions Jacksonville LLC has won a $66,526,423 firm-fixed-price contract to dry-dock, repair and modernize the US Navy’s Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS St. Louis (LCS 19). Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded the Fiscal 2027 Docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) on October 28, 2026. Work will take place in Mayport, Florida, the ship’s homeport, and is scheduled for completion by December 2027.
The award lands at a pivotal moment for the Freedom variant. The Navy decommissioned USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) on July 29, 2026, about ten weeks after commissioning the 16th and final Freedom-variant hull, USS Cleveland (LCS 31), on May 16, 2026. St. Louis itself appeared among the nine Freedom-variant ships the Navy proposed to retire in its Fiscal 2023 budget request. A docking availability of this size indicates the Navy now intends to keep the ship in the active surface force for years to come.
USS St. Louis DSRA Contract: Scope, Funding and Competition
A DSRA is a Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) scheduled availability that places the ship in dry dock, giving the yard access to the hull, underwater fittings, shafting and waterjet components that cannot be worked pierside. Per the contract announcement, BAE Systems is responsible for all labor, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities and quality assurance needed to prepare for and execute the modernization, maintenance and repair programs scheduled for the availability.
The contract includes options that, if exercised, would raise its cumulative value to $80,693,639, adding $14,167,216, or roughly 21 percent, above the base award. Such options typically absorb growth work found once a hull is opened in dry dock, a recurring source of cost and schedule pressure.
Funding comes entirely from Other Procurement, Navy (OPN) accounts obligated at award: $58,817,928 in Fiscal 2027 funds (88 percent), $7,474,140 in Fiscal 2026 funds (11 percent) and $234,355 in Fiscal 2025 funds (less than 1 percent). NAVSEA competed the requirement under full and open competition through the System for Award Management (SAM) website and received two offers. The announcement does not identify the second bidder, nor does it itemize the combat system, hull or propulsion work packages planned for LCS 19.
Freedom-Variant Design and the Operational Record of LCS 19
Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine built St. Louis in Marinette, Wisconsin. The ship was christened on December 15, 2018, and commissioned on August 8, 2020, at Naval Station Mayport in a private ceremony held under COVID-19 restrictions. It was the 22nd littoral combat ship and the 10th Freedom variant delivered to the Navy, and it is assigned to Littoral Combat Ship Squadron (LCSRON) 2.
Publicly available specifications indicate the Freedom variant uses a 387-foot semi-planing steel monohull with an aluminum superstructure and displaces roughly 3,500 tons at full load. A combined diesel and gas turbine (CODAG) plant, built around two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines and two diesel engines, drives four waterjets for sprint speeds above 40 knots. Core armament comprises a 57 mm Mk 110 gun and a Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launcher, with a hangar sized for MH-60 helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The propulsion train and combining gear have been the class’s most persistent reliability concern, which puts dry-dock access at the center of any effort to keep these hulls deployable.
St. Louis has been one of the busier Freedom-variant hulls. Its maiden deployment to US 4th Fleet, completed in February 2025, took it through the Panama Canal and as far south as Valparaíso, Chile, for the UNITAS 65 exercise, the first Freedom-variant ship to sail that far south. The ship then deployed under US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) in support of southern border operations in the Gulf of America, returning to Mayport on November 10, 2025, with Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 50 Detachment 5 and a US Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment embarked.
Analysis: The award reflects a Navy that is retiring its least capable early hulls while investing in later Freedom variants that still have most of their service lives ahead of them. The Navy’s November 2025 decision to end the Constellation-class frigate program after its first two ships curtailed the platform meant to succeed the LCS, leaving ships like St. Louis to carry more of the small surface combatant workload in the Western Hemisphere than planners anticipated. The bidding picture also deserves attention: only two offers arrived for a sizable availability in one of the Navy’s principal East Coast homeports, a thin field that limits NAVSEA’s leverage on price and schedule.
The next indicators are execution milestones: the ship’s entry into dry dock, any exercise of the $14.2 million in options, and redelivery by December 2027. The Navy has not detailed which upgrades LCS 19 will receive, and the Fiscal 2028 budget request will show how many Freedom-variant ships the Navy intends to keep in service.