Navy DDG-51 and DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs

The Navy has been procuring Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class Aegis destroyers since FY1985. The two DDG-51s requested for procurement in FY2017 are to be the 75th and 76th ships in the class.

The 10 DDG-51s programmed for procurement in FY2013-FY2017 (in annual quantities of 3-1-2-2-2) are being procured under a multiyear-procurement (MYP) contract. One of the DDG-51s funded in FY2016 is to be the first of a new DDG-51 design variation called the Flight III design, which is to incorporate a new and more capable radar called the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR).

As part of its action on the Navy’s FY2016 budget, Congress provided $1 billion in unrequested procurement funding to help pay for a DDG-51 that would be in addition to those being procured under the 10-ship MYP contract for FY2013-FY2017. The Navy, in its budget submission, notes this additional $1 billion in funding for the DDG-51 program, but does not show the additional DDG-51 in its shipbuilding plan.

The Navy estimates the combined procurement cost of the two DDG-51s requested for procurement in FY2017 at $3,393.9 million. The ships have received a total of $182.6 million in prior-year advance procurement (AP) funding

The DDG-1000 program was initiated in the early 1990s. The DDG-1000 is a multi-mission destroyer with an emphasis on naval surface fire support (NSFS) and operations in littoral (i.e., near-shore) waters. The DDG-1000 is intended to replace, in a technologically more modern form, the large-caliber naval gun fire capability that the Navy lost when it retired its Iowa-class battleships in the early 1990s, to improve the Navy’s general capabilities for operating in defended littoral waters, and to introduce several new technologies that would be available for use on future Navy ships. The DDG-1000 was also intended to serve as the basis for the Navy’s now-canceled CG(X) cruiser.

The DDG-1000 is to have a reduced-size crew of 142 sailors (compared to roughly 300 on the Navy’s Aegis destroyers and cruisers) so as to reduce its operating and support (O and S) costs. The ship incorporates a significant number of new technologies, including an integrated electric-drive propulsion system and automation technologies enabling its reduced-sized crew.

The DDG-1000 incorporates a significant number of new technologies, including a wavepiercing, tumblehome hull design for reduced detectability, a superstructure made partly of large sections of composite (i.e., fiberglass-like) materials rather than steel or aluminum, an integrated electric-drive propulsion system, a total-ship computing system for moving information about the ship, automation technologies enabling its reduced-sized crew, a dual-band radar, a new kind of vertical launch system (VLS) for storing and firing missiles, and two copies of a 155mm gun called the Advanced Gun System (AGS). The AGS is to fire a new rocket-assisted 155mm shell, called the Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP), to ranges of more than 60 nautical miles. The DDG-1000 can carry 600 LRLAP rounds (300 for each gun), and additional rounds can be brought aboard the ship while the guns are firing, creating what Navy officials call an “infinite magazine.” When the DD-21 program was initiated, a total of 32 ships was envisaged. In subsequent years, the planned total for the DD(X)/DDG-1000 program was reduced to 16 to 24, then to 7, and finally to 3.

With an estimated full load displacement of 15,482 tons, the DDG-1000 design is roughly 63% larger than the Navy’s current 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers.

SOURCES- Congressional report