The Navy’s abrupt pivot from the troubled Constellation class to a new FF(X) “super frigate” has created a rare mix of urgency and opportunity in American shipbuilding. The service is promising a smaller, more agile combatant that can start filling fleet gaps by 2028, even as it rewrites requirements and acquisition plans on the fly. Whether those ships are actually patrolling contested seas that quickly will depend on how well the Navy can translate political promises and paper designs into steel, sensors, and crews.
At stake is more than a single class of warship. The FF(X) is being cast as a critical building block in the Navy’s future force, a test of whether the service has learned from the Littoral Combat Ship and Constellation experiences, and a signal to rivals that the United States can still move fast when it needs to. The 2028 target is ambitious, but the path to get there is clearer than it first appears.
From Constellation’s collapse to a clean-sheet reset
The FF(X) story starts with failure. Construction of the USS Constellation began in August 2022, and The Navy ultimately ordered six ships in a program that was supposed to deliver a modern, multi-mission frigate at around 1.4 billion dollars per hull. By late 2025, however, the complex design and mounting delays convinced The Navy that the plan no longer made sense, and it moved to cancel the Constellation class entirely, leaving those six ships in limbo and reopening a major gap in the surface fleet’s future force structure, as detailed in reporting on Construction of the.
That decision did not happen in isolation. In a series of announcements stretching from late November into December, the Navy told Congress it wanted to restructure its frigate acquisition approach, effectively acknowledging that the Constellation model no longer aligned with its operational needs or industrial realities. A formal report to Congress laid out how the Constellation and FF(X) programs would be handled going forward, underscoring that the service was willing to walk away from sunk costs to regain schedule and flexibility.
Why the Navy is betting on a smaller, “agile” combatant
Into that vacuum stepped the FF(X). On 19 December, December the US Navy announced that it would introduce a new class of smaller combatant ships, the FF(X), describing them as a critical component of the Navy’s fleet of the future and a key piece of its small surface combatant mix. The public statement framed FF(X) as a way to rebalance the force toward more numerous, affordable ships that can operate independently or as part of larger formations, a message reinforced in a separate note from The Navy’s leadership that highlighted how The Navy will introduce this new class as part of a broader modernization push, as seen in the December the US announcement.
Senior leaders have been explicit about the rationale. The Navy has major operational demands for more surface warships in general, and it now has an additional gap to fill following the troubled Littoral Combat Ship that came before FF(X). The new frigate is meant to be smaller and more agile than a destroyer but still able to contribute meaningfully to air defense, anti-submarine warfare, and surface strike, a balance that reflects hard lessons from the LCS era, as described in analysis of how service has major needs for capable small combatants.
A Legend-class DNA and a 2028 promise
To avoid repeating Constellation’s drawn-out design spiral, the Navy has anchored FF(X) in an existing hull. The U.S. Navy has confirmed its decision to acquire a new FF(X) frigate with a design based on the Coast Guard’s Legend class National Security Cutter, a proven ship that already operates globally on long-duration patrols. By leveraging the Legend hull form and modifying it for higher-end combat, the Navy hopes to compress design timelines and reduce technical risk while still delivering a ship that can survive in contested environments, a strategy laid out in detail in coverage of the Legend-based concept.
That approach has political backing at the very top of the department. The Secretary of the Navy has promised a ship by 2028, and early renderings show modifications to the National Security Cutter design that focus on combat systems and internal volume rather than radical changes to the basic hull. One analysis notes that the SecNav’s path from an initial concept, described as Item 1, to a fielded ship, described as Item 2, depends heavily on inserting new equipment into already existing void spaces and keeping structural changes modest, a point emphasized in commentary on how SecNav has promised a 2028 delivery.
Specs, roles and the “super frigate” label
For a ship that is still on the drawing board, FF(X) already has a surprisingly detailed public profile. According to unclassified information shared by the Navy, the FF(X) will have a defined Year Introduced target, with 2028 flagged as the initial service entry, and a suite of capabilities tailored to contested littoral and open-ocean operations. Program officials have described a focus on anti-submarine warfare, air defense for nearby ships, and independent presence missions, with the acquisition strategy shaped to facilitate faster delivery, as summarized in an assessment that begins, “According to the unclassified information shared by the Navy,” and goes on to list the planned Year Introduced and other specifications.
Technical details are still evolving, but early briefings have highlighted a balanced sensor and weapons fit rather than a single marquee system. A panel that discussed the program stressed that FF(X) should be viewed in the context of the broader fleet, with its radar, electronic warfare suite, and anti-submarine tools, including hull-mounted or towed array sonar, optimized to complement larger combatants rather than replace them. That framing, which came through clearly in a recent rundown of the program specs, helps explain why some observers have started calling FF(X) a “super frigate”: not because it outguns a destroyer, but because it is being asked to punch above the traditional weight of a small surface combatant.
Industrial base realities and the 2028 clock
Ambition is one thing, shipyard capacity is another. The Navy has already signaled that the first FF(X) will be built at Ingalls, leaning on a yard that has extensive experience with the National Security Cutter and other large surface combatants. At the same time, outside analysts have noted that once the complex Constellation design was fully understood, it became clear that the industrial base would struggle to deliver it on time and on budget, a warning that hangs over FF(X) as well, as described in a review of how However, once the of Constellation was digested, the program unraveled.
To keep FF(X) on track, the Navy is trying to simplify wherever it can. A Congressional research product that summarized the late 2025 announcements noted that the Navy had formally Announced FF(X) as part of a broader reset of its small surface combatant plans, signaling to lawmakers that it would prioritize mature technologies and incremental upgrades over bespoke systems. That same document, which traced how the Announced FF program fits into the overall frigate portfolio, underscored that schedule is now a key performance parameter in its own right.
More from Morning Overview