USN Abandons New Ship Designs

USN Abandons New Ship Designs

July 21, 2008: The U.S. Navy is working out the details on how toabandon plans to replace current destroyers and cruisers with thenew DDG-1000 class ships. It's a matter of cost. The new destroyers(and slightly larger versions designated as cruisers) will cost$3-4 billion each, and that seems likely to climb even higherbecause of the new technologies planned for them.

The alternative is to buy some time (about a decade) by upgradingdozens of existing destroyers and cruisers. This is a bitter pillto swallow, as only seven years ago, the navy was so sure about thenew ships, that it accelerated the retirement of a dozen of the 31Spruance class destroyers, in order to save the $28 million a yearit would cost to keep them in service. These ships were not justretired, they were all either broken up, or sunk in trainingexercises. The dozen that entered service between 1979-83 couldhave been refurbished and been available until 2019. That's a lostopportunity. But what can now be done is refurb the Burke classdestroyers (which began entering service in the 1990s). Most of theTiconderoga class cruisers (which entered service in the 1980s and90s) can use the refurb as well, which could boost their serviceinto the 2030s. More Burke class destroyers will be built, eventhough these now cost about a billion dollars each.

The new destroyer (DDG-1000/Zumwalt Class/DD-21/DD-X) design has astealthy superstructure, and is as big as a battleship, at least abattleship of a century ago, The new destroyer is a 14,000 tonship, 600 feet long and 79 feet wide. A crew of 150 sailors operatea variety of weapons, including two 155mm guns, two 40mm automaticcannon for close in defense, 80 Vertical Launch Tubes (containingeither anti-ship, cruise or anti-aircraft missiles), six torpedotubes, a helicopter and three helicopter UAVs. The cruiser version(CGN, as Congress has mandated that these be nuclear powered) woulddrop one of the 155mm guns, as well as the torpedo tubes, but carrymore vertical cells for missiles (especially anti-ballistic missilemissiles). This would be a 20-25,000 ton ship.

For comparison purposes, consider a modern ship of a century ago.Not a support ship like a destroyer, but a "capital ship." Backthen, a Mississippi class battleship displaced 14,400 tons, was 382feet long and 77 feet wide. A crew of 800 operated a variety ofweapons, including four 12 inch, eight 8 inch, eight 7 inch, twelve3 inch, twelve 47mm and four 37mm guns, plus four 7.62mmmachine-guns. There were also four torpedo tubes. The Mississippihad a top speed of 31 kilometers an hour, versus 54 for DDG-1000.But the Mississippi had one thing DD-21 lacked, armor. Along theside there was a belt of 9 inch armor, and the main turrets had 12inch thick armor. The Mississippi had radio, but the DDG-1000 hasradio, GPS, sonar, Aegis radar, electronic warfare equipment andthe ability to shoot down ballistic missiles.

The century old Mississippi class ships cost about half a billiondollars (adjusted for inflation). The DDG-1000 class destroyerswill cost about $3 billion each, thus possessing the price, andsize, the firepower, if not the name, of a battleship.

The refurb policy will cost about $200 million per destroyer (and20-25 percent more for the cruisers). Normally, these ships get onerefurb during their 30 year lives. This not only fixes lots ofthings that have broken down or worn out (and been patched up), butinstalls lots of new technology. A second refurb is expected to addanother 5-10 years. But this special refurb will do more than that.The navy wants to add some of the DDG-1000 technology to theseolder ships. In particular, the navy wants to install the "smartship" type automation (found in civilian ships for decades) thatwill enable crew size to be reduced. The "smart ship" gear alsoincludes better networking and power distribution. In effect, theship would be rewired. This could reduce the crew size by 20-30percent (current destroyers have a crew of 320, with the cruiserscarrying 350). In addition to considerable cost savings (over$100,000 a year per sailor), a smaller crew takes up less space,enabling the smaller crew to have more comfortable living quarters.This is a big deal as far as morale and retention (getting peopleto stay in the navy) goes.

Most other new items are not space dependent, except for some ofthe power based ones (like the rail gun). But these technologiesare receding farther into the future. Right now the navy has tofind a way to live within its budget, and refurbishing existingwarships shows more promise than trying build affordable new ones.