Feature 1
would also add very substantially to the
price. These reasons may be sufficient to
bury the nuclear-powered option.
But by the time the order for the
second CG (X) is placed the US Navy
surface combatant fleet will begin a slow
decline from 113 cruisers and destroyers
to 79 by FY 2037. Even with a planned
19 of the new cruisers this exercise in
graceful degradation will require a five-
year extension into the lives of both
the Ticonderoga (CG 47) class cruisers
and the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class
destroyers, although a formal decision has
yet to be made.
As Rear Admiral Victor Guillory, who
heads the surface warfare directorate, US Navy divers and special operators attached to SEAL Delivery Team (SDV) 2 perform
recently observed: ‘Modernising these SDV operations with the Ohio class nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine (SSGN)
platforms is the clearest path to achieving USS Florida.
a 313 floor.’
In the meantime both classes will be
upgraded and there are plans to give all
destroyers and more cruisers a Ballistic
Missile Defence (BMD) capability.
Currently three cruisers and 15 destroyers
will be BMD capable by the end of the
decade, although about half will be capable
only of detecting and tracking incoming
missiles.
The cruisers are scheduled for an
upgrade from this year starting with USS
Bunker Hill (CG 52) but it is unclear how
many, if any, will join the BMD force. The
destroyers will be upgraded a little later,
probably with the introduction of more
automated machinery room control,
a limited mine surveillance capability
through the Remote Minehunting System A model of the DDG 1000 Zumwalt class destroyer to be built by Bath Iron Works and
(RMS), and protection against littoral Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is displayed during a contract signing ceremony at the
threats with the shipboard protection Pentagon.
systems. Both classes are also likely to
be modified to receive the latest version
of the long-lived Standard Missile (SM) which shares all the problems and risks and doubts growing about the operational
system, SM-6. of the Zumwalts. With the unit price of concept, the US Navy is seeking between
As mentioned last year in Warship these ships, once estimated at US$220 five and six ships a year between FY 2009
Technology’s review of US Navy million and now at US$531 million, and FY 2016.
programmes, a new destroyer will be this programme is in real trouble but, If the surface combatant plans appear in
needed to succeed the Arleigh Burke. like Queen Cleopatra, the US Navy is in disarray, those for carriers and submarines
Most industrial sources believe that denial. seem more certain. The decommissioning
DDG (X) will be a ‘Flight III’ Arleigh Although it has had to cancel both of of USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in FY 2013
Burke incorporating technology from the contenders’ second ships it is still and the slippage of the first of the Gerald R
the Zumwalts, but all of this remains desperately seeking to continue the Ford (CVN 78) class by a year will cut the
speculative and the new class will not be programme and even with an amended carrier force from 11 to 10 ships. But with
required before 2020. programme aims to have 55 ships by FY more Fords being built at the rate of two
Another key element in the 313-ship 2018. Astonishingly, it plans another LCS carriers a decade and careful management
fleet is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in the next FY, yet with costs rocketing of the Nimitz (CVN 68) class, the 11-ship
Warship Technology March 2008 11
WT Mar - p10+11+
12.indd 11 03/03/2008 11:53:04
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