LCS, DDG-51, DDG-1000 zumwalt Programs

Navy DDG-51 and DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs: Background and Issues for Congress

The Navy’s FY2013 budget submission calls for procuring nine Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers in FY2013-FY2017, in annual quantities of 2-1-2-2-2. The five DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2013-FY2015, and one of the two scheduled for procurement in FY2016, are to be of the current Flight IIA design.

The Navy wants to begin procuring a new version of the DDG-51 design, called the Flight III design, starting with the second of the two ships scheduled for procurement in FY2016. The two DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2017 are also to be of the Flight III design. The Flight III design is to feature a new and more capable radar called the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR).

The Navy this year is requesting congressional approval to use a multiyear procurement (MYP) arrangement for the nine DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2013-FY2017.

The Navy’s proposed FY2013 budget requests $3,048.6 million to complete the procurement funding for the two DDG-51s scheduled for procurement in FY2013. The Navy estimates the total procurement cost of these ships at $3,149.4 million, and the ships have received $100.7 million in prior-year advance procurement (AP) funding.

The FY2013 budget also requests $466.3 million in AP funding for DDG-51s to be procured in future fiscal years. Much of this AP funding is for Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) procurement of selected components of the nine DDG-51s to be procured under the proposed FY2013-FY2017 MYP arrangement.

The Navy’s proposed FY2013 budget also requests $669.2 million in procurement funding to help complete procurement costs for three Zumwalt (DDG-1000) class destroyers procured in FY2007-FY2009, and $223.6 million in research and development funding for the AMDR.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on January 24, 2012, discusses several potential oversight issues for Congress regarding the Navy’s plans for procuring DDG-51s, particularly the Flight III version. Some of these issues were first raised in this CRS report; the GAO report developed these issues at length and added some additional issues.

Potential FY2013 issues for Congress concerning destroyer procurement include the following:
• whether actions should be taken to mitigate the projected shortfall in cruisers and destroyers;
• whether to approve the Navy’s request for a DDG-51 MYP arrangement beginning in FY2013, and if so, whether it should include Flight III DDG-51s;
• whether there is an adequate analytical basis for procuring Flight III DDG-51s in lieu of the previously planned CG(X) cruiser, and whether an analysis of alternatives (AOA) or the equivalent of an AOA should be performed before committing to the development and procurement of Flight III DDG-51s;
• whether the Flight III DDG-51 would have sufficient air and missile capability to adequately perform future air and missile defense missions;
• cost, schedule, and technical risk in the Flight III DDG-51 program;
• whether the Flight III DDG-51 design would have sufficient growth margin for a projected 35- or 40-year service life;
• whether the categorization of the Flight III DDG-51 program in the DOD acquisition process provides for a sufficient level of oversight for the program; and
• schedule risk for recently procured Flight IIA DDG-51s.

PLA Admiral: China can destroy Zumwalt-class destroyer by fishing boats

The Navy’s next-generation warship, the 15,000-ton Zumwalt-class destroyer, is no good and can be destroyed by Chinese fishing boats armed with explosives, according to a leading Chinese military commentator, People’s Liberation Army Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong.

Adm. Zhang made the remarks April 30 during a nationwide broadcast of “Defense Review Weekly,” a program on state-run China Central TV. The admiral has been the station’s chief military commentator since 1998.

Zumwalt-class destroyers are one of the Navy’s newest, most-advanced and most-expensive vessels. They have a rich history of budgetary and technological debates.

Ultimately, the destroyers survived several Washington budget cuts. Three of them are under construction at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine; the lead ship, USS Elmo Zumwalt DDG-1000, named for former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., is scheduled to be completed a year from now.

The new destroyer will play a significant role in what the Navy calls its “mace weapons” that are part of the new American military strategy in the Asia-Pacific, especially China.

The strategy will focus on land-attack capabilities in littoral battles. It will use some of the most-advanced technologies and weapons innovations, including a revolutionary stealth design that reduces radar and sonar signatures to the lowest level of any destroyers in the world.

It includes the Advanced Gun System featuring a high-tech electronic rail gun that is battery powered using electromagnetic pulse, and a Peripheral Vertical Launch System that will significantly reduce the damage of a missile battery explosion.

China pays close attention to Navy weapons development as Beijing regards American naval power as the most significant and most tangible military threat to its regional and global ambitions.

For the past several years, China has engaged in fierce oceanic and littoral disputes with almost all of its neighbors with shorelines. It is a rare day that passes without some mention of the U.S. Navy and its role in the South China, East China and the Yellow seas in a potential future battle scenario with the Chinese navy.

In his remarks, Adm. Zhang acknowledged the technological prowess of the Zumwalt destroyer but stated that he believes it represents a weakness, rather than strength, because the ship “places all eggs in one basket” of making various technologies vulnerable and unwieldy to design and operate.

“I can send several dozen small fishing boats loaded with explosives, floating and wobbly in the water, inching toward the Zumwalt, place the explosives onto its hulls [and] blow many holes in the hull. It will be finished then. The Zumwalt is no good!” the admiral remarked with his signature optimism.

Widely known as China’s “Adm. Gaffe,” Adm. Zhang is a chief weapons specialist and strategist for the Chinese navy, currently serving as a professor at the Chinese military’s Defense University.

The most famous military face on Chinese national TV for the past decade, Adm. Zhang frequently entertains the nation with consistent miscalculations and wacky predictions.

He asserted that the U.S. would never attack Saddam Hussein for fear of getting mired in a Stalingrad-like “people’s war” in Baghdad. That was the day before the assault started in 2003.

He assured the Chinese nation hours before Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s demise that Libyan rebels failed to locate Gaddafi’s hiding place.

And one day before North Korea’s failed satellite launch April 14, the admiral announced on Chinese national television that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would have an “80 percent probability of a launch success.”

Two weeks ago, Adm. Zhang predicted India had only a 60 percent probability of success in launching the Agni-5 ICBM. A couple of days later, India launched the rocket, which was reported to be a 100 percent success.

Cutting-edge Navy warship - USS Zumwalt- being built in Maine

USS Zumwalt Photo

An enormous, expensive and technology-laden warship that some Navy leaders once tried to kill because of its cost is now viewed as an important part of the Obama administration's Asia-Pacific strategy, with advanced capabilities that the Navy's top officer says represent the Navy's future.
The stealthy, guided-missile Zumwalt that's taking shape at Bath Iron Works is the biggest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy.
The low-to-the-water warship will feature a wave-piercing hull, composite deckhouse, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar, missiles, and powerful guns that fire rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. It's also longer and heavier than existing destroyers -- but will have half the crew because of automated systems.