"LM are one of those companies who have expanded into nearly every market as a "Prime Systems Integrator". In the case of shipbuilding, even though they have no background in ship building, and own no shipyards."
Ok, Lockheed Shipbuilding built LSDs 41-43 for the USN in the 1980s; LPDs (amphibious personnel transport, dock) 9-15 back in the 1960s-early 70s; 5 Knox FFs in the same time period; and 3 Brooke FFGs & 2 Garcia FFs in the early 1960s... and General Dynamics Shipbuilding (merged with Lockheed in the 1980s) built all of the Ohio SSBNS & Seawolf SSNs, and half of the Los Angeles and Virginia SSNs from the 1970s-current, and LSDs 37-40 in the late 1960s-70s.
So there IS just a tad of shipbuilding experience there, you know.
As well as shipyards that they do now own, and have owned for decades!
Which makes the current problems all the more embarrassing and problematic.
They really should be handling the design & build a lot better... but so should Northrop-Grumman... as they bought the Avondale and Litton-Ingalls shipyards... which have between them built most of the guided missile destroyers and cruisers of the USN (along with many of its LSD/LPD/LPH ships) for the last 40 years, and are still building them today.