Mary-Louise Hoffman
Scott Donnelly, CEO of Textron, said the company is halfway done with builder's trials of the Ship-to-Shore Connector platform it developed for the U.S. Navy and expects to receive a contract by the end of the year to commence production of the air cushion vehicle, USNI News reported Thursday.
Textron won the SSC design and construction project in 2012. Both parties are in discussions about moving the program from the development phase to the manufacturing stage.
The service branch requested $128M for two SSC vessels in fiscal year 2017, $212M for another three units in FY 2018 and $325M for five craft in FY 2019.
SSC is designed to replace the Navy's Landing Craft, Air Cushion vehicle and transport surface assault personnel and equipment.
The report said Textron built the connector with a fly-by-wire control technology and a drive and propulsion system.
