Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2022)

Eye on the Navy

Course correction for DDG 1000

U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe

Navy will replace main battery for guided missile destroyer

By Edward Lundquist he U.S. Navy’s controversial USS Zumwalt (DDG the intention of evolving that hull into an air defense cruiser 1000) class of guided missile destroyers raises the called CG(X). In fact, at that time, the Navy was promoting legitimate question of whether a ship is too transfor- the Surface Combatant Family of Ships, or SCFOS, which

T mational, or not transformational enough. included the DD(X), CG(X), a new class of ships called LCS,

While the Navy Fact File states that DDG 1000 is the “larg- and the Aegis cruisers and destroyers kept in the most up- est and most technologically advanced surface combatant in graded con? gurations.

the world,” it’s a program that has been in existence for many While many new and transformational technologies and years. It began as the SC-21 (Surface Combatant for the 21st concepts were developed and tested for DDG-1000—to in- century) research and development program in 1994, which clude the Advanced Gun System (AGS) and Long-Range included the “arsenal ship” concept. From that effort came a Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP)--the original program of 16,000-ton land attack destroyer, designed to support expe- 32 ships did not materialize (it was reduced to 24, then 12, ditionary forces coming ashore and moving inland, emerged then seven, and eventually three), and the CG(X) concept was with two long-range guns and 128 missile tubes, called DD- cancelled. DDG 1000 was built around the main battery of 21 (Destroyer for the 21st century). That program evolved two 155mm AGS guns that could ? re the precision-guided, into the DD(X) or Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer, rocket assisted LRLAP rounds at targets 63 to 100 miles away with the characteristic tumblehome hull and stealth technol- with pinpoint accuracy. Using the multi-round simultaneous ogy to operate in littoral waters against threats of the post- impact (MRSI), four rounds could be ? red one after the other,

Cold War world. It was then designated as DDG 1000, with each one on a separate ? ight path calculated to arrive pre- 12 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2022

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