Pentagon leaves out destroyer, in loss to Maine

Pentagon leaves out destroyer, in loss to Maine


By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 6/13/2001

ASHINGTON - In a Pentagon report on America's future war machines, the largest prize for New England - a Navy stealth destroyer that Bath Iron Works in Maine would build - is an apparent casualty.


An influential panel, which made its recommendations to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, concluded yesterday that the Navy's proposed stealth destroyer, known as the DD-21, was not justifiable at the cost of $30 billion overall.


The panel's conclusions do not kill the program, but if Rumsfeld adopts them, congressional supporters and defense contractors would face an extremely difficult fight to restore funding.


If the DD-21 program is canceled, the Navy could order more of the current generation destroyers, known as DDG-51, from Bath Iron Works - Maine's largest employer - and Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., analysts say. While the Navy could scale down purchases, most defense specialists believe the Pentagon would want to provide enough contracts to keep the shipyard industry alive.


In ad***ion to leaving out DD-21 from its recommendations, the panel also didn't back a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier known as CVX. But the panel found several other programs to be more promising to meet President Bush's vision of revolutionizing military technological abilities, including the proposed Joint Strike Fighter warplane and the Lockheed F-22 fighter. These decisions will determine the future fighting capabilities of the US military, a review initiated by Bush when he took office.


''We were not persuaded they were truly transformational,'' said James McCarthy, a retired Air Force general who chaired the panel's secret deliberations, referring to DD-21 and CVX. ''We didn't see a substantial difference in operational capability in the DD-21 compared'' with ''the other systems.''


The panel called for accelerating by two to three years the planned deployment of the Joint Strike Fighter, currently pegged to enter service by 2008.


It found no reason to restart the B-2 bomber production line, but recommended refurbishing the existing 21 bat-winged aircraft to give them a bigger bomb-dropping capability and more flexible targeting enhancements.


A Navy spokeswoman, Lieutenant Commander Cate Mueller, said the Navy was disappointed with the panel's recommendations, adding, ''The capabilities represented by our R&D efforts on DD-21 and CVX are the key to enabling that transformation to be realized.''


Lawmakers and defense lobbyists have been anxiously awaiting Rumsfeld's reviews because the outcome will affect billions of dollars in contracts and determine the military's future capabilities.


The modernization panel was the first of 21 groups advising Rumsfeld to make its review public. The study was done by the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center. McCarthy, a professor of national security studies at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, said his panel included ''more admirals than anything else.''


There had been much speculation in recent months that the DD-21 program was in trouble. The concern was heightened on May 31 when the Navy postponed its decision on whether Bath or Ingalls would be the lead shipbuilder.


On that same day - Navy officials may have already known then of the modernization panel's recommendations against the DD-21 - the Navy said it would award a $7 million contract to continue engineering development of the destroyer.


DD-21 supporters have been touting several possible advances in the design: an all-electric drive; two superguns on deck that could fire more than 100 miles onshore; a wave-piercing, inverted V-shaped hull; greater maneuverability that allows for sudden turns to avoid mines; and shrinking the crew from 350 to 95.


''The ability to take a ship, put those kinds of technology and innovations on it, and get the crew size down to 95, that's leap-ahead technology,'' said Kendell Pease, spokesman for General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works. ''We don't know yet the full results of these'' review ''boards, where they fit with Secretary Rumsfeld. It's too early to draw a conclusion.''


The Navy had been planning to buy 32 of the ships; after the fourth ship, it was estimated to cost $750 million per vessel.


General Dynamic's Bath and Lockheed Martin Corp. leads one of the two competing teams; Ingalls, Raytheon Systems Co., and Boeing Co. lead the other team.

DD21 ZUMWALT CLASS
The 32 ship US Navy DD 21 Zumwalt class multimission destroyers will enter service in about 2012. The destroyers will replace Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates (FFG 7) and Spruance class destroyers (DD 963). Unlike previous classes of destroyer, which were primarily to counter deep water threats, the DD 21's primary mission is in providing land attack support for ground forces. The ship is also to carry out tra***ional destroyer missions of anti-air, anti-surface and undersea warfare.
The two teams preparing proposals for the Phase III award are the "Blue Team" led by Bath Iron Works (a General Dynamics company) with Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems as the systems integrator; and the "Gold Team" led by Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding with Raytheon Systems Company as the systems integrator. On 1st April 2001, the US Navy will select one team to control the program and complete the system design, and then both teams will be involved in the build of the ships. The first build contract award is scheduled for 2001 and the first ship delivery will be in 2010.
DESIGN
The size of the ships will be determined by the concept design proposals and estimates indicate the ship will probably be in excess of 14,000 tons. The operational requirements document (the ORD) defines that the ship is for littoral shallow water operation and will therefore be of shallow draught of no more than 28 feet and will be restricted in size by the requirement for Panama Canal transit capability.
The DD 21 designs feature active and passive stealth technologies for low visual, infrared, magnetic and both surface and waterborne acoustic signatures.
CREW
The number of crew is a key performance parameter within the operational requirements. An objective requirement is a crew of 95, including the helicopter detachment. This represents major theoretical cost saving compared to crew levels of 330 on Spruance destroyers and 200 on Oliver Hazard Perry frigates.
WEAPONS
The DD21 will have a sensor and weapons suite optimised for littoral warfare and for network centric warfare. Missile systems under consideration include Tactical Tomahawk (intended *****cceed Tomahawk TLAM), Land Attack Standard Missile (LASM) and the Advanced Land Attack Missile (ALAM) for land attack and the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) for air defence.
United Defense has been awarded the contract to develop the ship's Advanced Gun System (AGS) for both Blue and Gold teams. The 155 mm gun is equipped with a fully automated weapon handling and storage system and a family of advanced munitions and propelling charges. Low rate initial production of the gun is scheduled for 2006 and 2007 and for the land attack projectiles from 2008 and 2009.
The gun is a conventional single-barrel low-signature gun with fast reaction, fully stabilised train and elevation, integrated system control and all-electric drives. The gun provides a high rate of fire at approximately 12 rounds/minute in maximum and sustained firing modes with a 750 round ammunition magazine. The gun provides firepower against a range of littoral and inland targets as well as highly advanced gunfire capabilities for anti-surface warfare.
The gun and munitions are being developed concurrently to achieve a maximum range of 100 nm (with rocket assist). The family of munitions is expected to include land attack and ballistic projectiles. Technologies derived from the US Navy's extended range guided munition (ERGM), the US Army 155mm XM-982 projectiles and the DTRA 5 inch projectile are being studied for incorporation into the projectile suite.
RADAR
The US Navy has placed a contract for the engineering management and development of a new multifunction radar (MFR), to provide a robust capability against air and missile threats in the littoral environment. The solid state active array radar operates in search, detect and track mode and provides weapon control functions. A volume search radar (VSR) operates at long ranges and above the horizon to provide target cueing data to MFR.
SONAR
The ship will have an Integrated Undersea Warfare System and the US Navy has set up the IUSW-21 program to develop technologies including multifunction hull array, mine avoidance and shallow water ASW.
AIRCRAFT
The DD 21 ships will conduct aviation operations with day and night launching and recovery, and in-flight refuelling. The ships will provide hangar facilities, maintenance and support including re-arming of two H-60 helicopters and a detachment of unmanned aerial vehicles.
PROPULSION
The DD 21 will have all-electric drive with an integrated power system (IPS), with the propulsion and all services connected to an electric bus. The provision of electric drive will eliminate the need for drive shaft and reduction gears and will bring benefits in signature reduction, an increase in available power for weapon systems and improvements in the quality of life for crew.