 That hull design evolved into the high-speed trimaran ferry and the "Independence" class was then proposed by General Dynamics and Austal as a contender for Navy plans to build a fleet of small, multipurpose warships to operate in the littoral zone.Two ships were approved, to compete with Lockheed Martin's design.Despite initial plans to only build ships of the winner out of the two competing "Independence" or "Freedom" classes, in 2010 the Navy announced plans to order up to ten additional ships of each class, for a total 12 ships per class.