Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2022)

U.S. NAVY DDG(X) he U.S. Navy’s highly successful USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) sur- face combatant program is still going strong and growing in capability. “DDG-51

Nearly 40 years later, new ships are still being built. But, the navy said, the ship cannot support the systems of tomorrow needed to meet the

T future threat.

hull form is “DDG 51 has been in production for over 40 years with basically the same hull we started with in 1985, and with and 30 years-worth of upgrades from Flight I to maxed out in

Flight II and IIA and now Flight III,” said Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, director for sur- face warfare on the Navy staff. “This hull form is maxed out in nearly every mission area. Meanwhile, the threat marches on.” nearly every

Speaking at the Surface Navy Association’s 34th Annual Symposium. Schlise said the newest version, the Flight III, will be a quantum leap forward in the class.

The ? rst Flight III, the future USS Jack Williams (DDG 125) is nearly 75 percent mission area. complete. It brings a new radar, electronic warfare system, Aegis Baseline 10, and a new electric plant into the Arleigh Burke hull.

Meanwhile, “DDG 125 will be the ? rst ship with the SPY-6, the Navy’s next generation radar system that will make our ships more lethal by providing power and sensitivity for long range detection, discrimination and engagement,” said Schlise.” “It will be the the threat most capable and sophisticated surface combat ever built, but it also represents the bridge from the past to the future.” marches on.”

Flight III will assume the air defense commander role (currently carried out by a

Ticonderoga-class CG-7 guided missile cruiser), with an O-6 in command (the other

DDG 51 ships have an O-5 in command, while the CG-47s are commanded by O-6s).

The ? rst Flight III is USS Jack Lucas (DDG 125), which is being built at Huntington – Rear Adm.

Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to go to sea later this year.

By comparison, the original Flight I DDGs displaces about 8,300 tons, while the

Paul Schlise,

Flight III will be close to 10,200 tons. The DDG 51 program over the year has con- sumed all of the available space, weight and power margin. Due to the density of the

Director for

DDG 51 design, the cascading effect of design changes to accommodate new capabili- ties impacts large portions of the ship, increases costs and takes a long time to upgrade. surface warfare

So, after 40 years, the Navy is beginning the DDG(X) program, formerly known as the large surface combatant (LSC). DDG(X) will have a new hull design, will be bigger than DDG 51s, and will have more power, with the for more and bigger missiles and the ? exibility to support power hungry weapons such as lasers and rail guns.

Pace the threat “DDG 51 is the most successful combatant class that we have in production. It’s been going on since 1985. There are a lot of lessons learned from there, a lot of good- ness that we’re trying to incorporate in this program,” said Katie Connelly, the deputy program manager for the DDG X program of? ce. “The Flight III combat capability upgrade provides the best integrated air and missile defense capability that we have, and will enable us to continue the ? ght for the near term, and pace the threat as we go.”

Based on typical service life expectancies, DDG 51 Flight III will be in service in the ? eet into the 2060s. “But,” Connelly said, “We took up all of the service life allowance on that platform. All of the space, weight and power has been allocated; there is not enough room on that ship to put a new combat capability that takes more power or a larger footprint within the ship,” she said. “The threat will continue to evolve, and there will be new threats as well. As the Navy continues to evolve its combat systems, weapons and other technologies to deter the threat, it needs a new platform that can accommodate those new technologies. We need to upgrade to a www.marinelink.com 35

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