FF(X)
planned US Navy frigate class
FF(X) is the designation for a class of frigates intended for the United States Navy based on the National Security Cutter (NSC) or Legend-class cutter in service with the United States Coast Guard. The program was announced on December 19, 2025, and the ships will be built by Huntington Ingalls Industries.
Development
On November 25, 2025, then-Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan announced the cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate program beyond the first two ships, citing the need to build ships at a faster rate.
The FF(X) program was announced on December 19, 2025, in social media posts by Phelan and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle. The program's objective is to have the first ship launched by 2028. To achieve this objective, the US Navy is planning for Ingalls to utilize components from the canceled 11th Legend-class cutter, Friedman.
Specifications of the FF(X) were announced on January 16, 2026, at Surface Navy 2026's Future Fleet Panel. 50-65 ships spanning multiple flights are planned to be constructed. Modular construction across multiple shipyards is planned to expedite production of the FF(X).
US$242 million was allocated to long lead items for the FF(X) program as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 defense appropriations legislation passed in February 2026.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q137525395. The first chronological checks are 2025, 2028 and 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “FF(X)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.