The Navy is surging forward with plans to build a new, more lethal Littoral Combat Ship variant engineered with a host of new technologies, weapons and systems to begin procurement by 2019, service leaders announced Thursday.

The new Small Surface Combatant, or SSC, emerged as a result of recommendations to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel from a unit tasked with analyzing possibilities for a new LCS variant called the Small Surface Combatant Task Force.

"After rigorous review and analysis, today I accepted the Navy's recommendation to build a new Small Surface Combatant ship based on upgraded variants of the LCS.

The new SSC will offer improvements in ship survivability and lethality, delivering enhanced naval combat performance at an affordable price," Hagel said in a written statement.

This past January, Hagel instructed the Navy that there would be no new contracts awarded for LCS production beyond 32 ships, instructing the Navy to consider a host of alternative proposals for the remaining 20 ships slated to complete the 52-ship program.

Hagel cited many criticisms of the LCS platform such as concerns that it lacked the lethality and survivability that it needed to complete its desired range of mission sets. As a result, he inspired the creation of the Small Surface Combatant Task Force which focused on identifying a new LCS design featuring vastly improved survivability.