DDG-1000 News

[surfgun]

Again teething issues just as usual with any big cutting edge technology project.

But with what is essentially a canceled program, Bath needed to bring the ships at under projections to have any hope of follow on contracts. The predications of the detractors of delays and price escalations are unfortunately coming true.

[Blademaster]

But with what is essentially a canceled program, Bath needed to bring the ships at under projections to have any hope of follow on contracts. The predications of the detractors of delays and price escalations are unfortunately coming true.

The problem is that there are no enemies right now or in the foreseeable future for the next 20 years that can contest or battle or even defeat an Arleigh Burke class destroyer as part of a US battlegroup. Not Russia or China.

There are some people in Pentagon that feels that the DDG-1000 could end up being the Yamato and Musashi of the 21st century - Big, expensive, technologically advanced and most impressive, and OBSOLETE, therefore, there's no need to build more of them unless a real justification for them could be had.

[jlvfr]

There are some people in Pentagon that feels that the DDG-1000 could end up being the Yamato and Musashi of the 21st century - Big, expensive, technologically advanced and most impressive, and OBSOLETE, therefore, there's no need to build more of them unless a real justification for them could be had.

I'm no fan of the DDG-1000 but, tbh, I don't think they'll really become "obsolete". Unlike WWII ships, their weapons can be upgraded without essentially rebuilding most of the ship. As long as new missiles fit the VLS modules, it will be just a matter of upgrading the electronic, a cost that any ship would have to pay. So, 2-3 ships might have a use, just not more than that.

[Dazed]

From AWST, USN Surface Warfare Topgun

http://aviationweek.com/blog/navweek-maritime-mavericks

[JRT]

But with what is essentially a canceled program, Bath needed to bring the ships at under projections to have any hope of follow on contracts. The predications of the detractors of delays and price escalations are unfortunately coming true.

That very subject is back in the forefront, and it remains to be seen if DDG-1002 will be funded to completion.

Pentagon considering canceling destroyer being built at BIW

Review of the last Zumwalt-class destroyer is scheduled soon, a decision that could affect Maine's fifth-largest private employer.

By Tony CapaccioBloomberg News Service

[ATTACH=CONFIG]40182[/ATTACH]

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials are weighing whether to cancel the last of three ships in General Dynamics Corp.’s $22 billion program to build new destroyers even though the vessel is already under construction.

Canceling the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, a Zumwalt-class destroyer, is a topic that’s “to be reviewed in the next few weeks” by teams formed by the Pentagon’s independent cost-assessment office, according to a Defense Department briefing document dated Aug. 25. Two officials familiar with the issue confirmed that cancellation discussions are under way although no decision has been made.

The ships are built at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works shipyard, which employs more than 5,000 workers. The yard is Maine’s fifth-largest private employer with a payroll of $360 million.

It also affects a multitude of businesses that support the yard, or operate within its supply chain. BIW spent $64 million with 345 companies located in 12 of Maine’s 16 counties in 2014. The bulk of that money – $40 million – flows to small businesses, according to figures provided by the company.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer is designed as a multimission land-attack vessel that will use electricity generated by gas turbines to power all of its systems, including weapons. The cancellation discussions, part of planning for the fiscal 2017 budget, are the latest twist for a program that’s been buffeted by delays, rising costs and changing plans.

From an initial 32, the quantity planned was reduced over the years to seven and then three. The estimated procurement cost for all three vessels has increased by 37 percent since 2009 to $12.3 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The estimated construction cost for the third destroyer, designated DDG-1002, is about $3.5 billion. A key question is how much of that could be saved by canceling a ship that’s about 41 percent complete, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.

BIW surprised by News

Employees at the Bath shipyard were taken by surprise Monday when it was reported the Pentagon is considering canceling the third Zumwalt, according to Jay Wadleigh, president of Local S6 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, which represents about 3,400 of BIW’s more than 5,700 employees.

“It seems to me it’d be a huge waste of taxpayer dollars,” Wadleigh told the Portland Press Herald on Monday afternoon.

How many jobs are at stake is impossible to tell because so much of the work overlaps with what’s being done on the other destroyers under construction, Wadleigh said. Hypothetically, if the Pentagon canceled the third Zumwalt, the shipyard could potentially accelerate work on the other destroyers under construction, the Zumwalts and the DDG-51 class destroyers the shipyard is building, to provide ongoing employment opportunities. But that would be a short-term fix, he said.

“Ultimately, there’s a lot of work being lost because even if the company was able to fill the gap and avoid layoffs, we’d get hit on the back end,” he said.

A practical consideration for Defense Department officials is whether they can get away with canceling the ship considering the program’s strong support in Congress. Lawmakers rejected a Navy plan in 2008 to limit the Zumwalt class to two ships.

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent, sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the state’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, heads a Senate Appropriations subcommittee and serves on its defense panel. The staffs of both lawmakers said Monday afternoon that they’re working on preparing a comment.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, who represents Bath as part of Maine’s 1st Congressional District, said canceling the third Zumwalt made no sense at all.

“The first ship in a new class is always the most expensive and then the cost goes down as more are built, so canceling the third ship would actually be canceling the one that is the most cost effective,” she said in a press release to the Press Herald. “In addition, the fact that it’s already under construction means pulling the plug now would be a total waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Wadleigh backed up Pingree’s claim. He said BIW employees working on the third Zumwalt report that everything is running smoother than it did on the first two.

“The design quirks and the other issues have been worked out and the performance seems to be better,” he said.

Asked about discussions of a potential cancellation, Commander Thurraya Kent, a Navy spokeswoman, said “it would be inappropriate to discuss business-sensitive information or speculate on budget deliberations.”

The ship was reviewed last month as part of a regularly scheduled meeting, and “the internal discussions of this meeting are not publicly releasable,” Kent said in an e-mail.

Lucy Ryan, a General Dynamics spokeswoman, said in an e- mail, “We’re not going to speculate” on any future Navy budget action. “This decision is entirely up to the Navy.”

The Navy is reviewing a Bath Iron Works proposal to adjust target costs for the second and third vessels in the class, with an updated proposal planned for December, according to a Navy program update last month.

Raytheon Co. makes the vessel’s combat and mission systems. The Navy is renegotiating with Raytheon to revise the contract options for mission systems for fiscal 2015 to 2017, according to the briefing document. Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. builds the vessel’s composite deckhouse.

Separately, the Navy said delivery of the first vessel will slip beyond November, which was already 14 months later than originally scheduled. Kent said contractor-sponsored dockside tests would start in November, followed in December by trials at sea. Rear Admiral Jim Downey, program manager for the ships, estimates the new delivery date for the Zumwalt will be closer to May 2016.

The Navy is also evaluating the delivery schedules for the remaining two vessels, according to Kent. The Navy and the shipbuilder are executing the test program “with extreme rigor to ensure the highest standards of quality and completeness when the ship sails,” she said.

In an assessment for the Aug. 25 review, Downey wrote that while most management issues with the contractor “are on track,” a pending Bath Iron Works “request for equitable adjustment” for reimbursement of some design, construction and support costs “has strained BIW and Navy management relations.”

The Navy also “continues to witness strained relations between BIW and the labor unions in the shipyard,” he wrote.

Ryan, the General Dynamics spokeswoman, said in e-mail that she wouldn’t comment on such issues.

Wadleigh at Local S6 said the relationship between the union and the company is improving. He said the company has hired the Gephardt Group, an Atlanta-based labor-related consulting firm, to act as a mediator between the parties and help them find common ground.

“The fact they’re in here I see as a positive sign,” Wadleigh said.

The new destroyer’s Advanced Gun System from BAE Systems Plc has two 155mm guns capable of firing “precision projectiles” 63 nautical miles (72.5 miles) inland. It’s to carry a crew of 142, down from about 300 on the Navy’s Aegis destroyers and cruisers.

The vessel is larger than any Navy destroyer or cruiser since the nuclear-powered USS Long Beach bought in 1957, according to the Congressional Research Service.


Staff Writer Whit Richardson contributed to this report

[gunnut]

USS Lyndon B. Johnson should not be cancelled. It will serve as a reminder of an expensive failure.

[jlvfr]

If it's that far along, I'd say finish it, tbh. Apart from jobs, etc, won't there be contract cancelation penalties? Those tend to be nasty...

Edit: the USN can always put it in reserve storage...

[TopHatter]

That article chose an odd picture, given the subject matter. That's Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), not a Zumwalt-class.

USS Lyndon B. Johnson should not be cancelled. It will serve as a reminder of an expensive failure.

The "Great Society" or the Zumwalt-class?

[gunnut]

The "Great Society" or the Zumwalt-class?

I was thinking LBJ himself...

Well, at least he didn't throw a bunch of natural born American citizens into concentration camps without due process just for their skin color and family names.

[TopHatter]

Well, at least he didn't throw a bunch of natural born American citizens into concentration camps without due process just for their skin color and family names.

We wouldn't name a ship after such a pres...

Oh. Right.

[JRT]

That article chose an odd picture, given the subject matter. That's Rafael Peralta (DDG-115), not a Zumwalt-class.

Good catch. I see that now spelled out on the banner under the flag.

[TopHatter]

Good catch. I see that now spelled out on the banner under the flag.

Great picture of a DDG under construction but Bloomberg, like pretty much every other news media org. out there, wouldn't know a DDG from a DMDG

[jlvfr]

Great picture of a DDG under construction but Bloomberg, like pretty much every other news media org. out there, wouldn't know a DDG from a DMDG

Hey, at lest it's not a Mig posing for an F-16 (yeah, saw that one in the news, some time ago).

And it's not like they are something like the History Channel... who thinks "any footage of tank moving" can be used to represent any tank of any period...

[SteveDaPirate]

And it's not like they are something like the History Channel... who thinks "any footage of tank moving" can be used to represent any tank of any period...

Coming up next, how would the mighty Abrams fare against a horde of T-72s?!!! Find out after this short message from our sponsors!

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[gunnut]

Coming up next, how would the mighty Abrams fare against a horde of T-72s?!!! Find out after this short message from our sponsors!

http://gfycat.com/SecondFlatAngwantibo

The Panther was a beautiful, but horrible tank. It had the weight, size, and cost of a heavy but the armor and armament of a medium. The turret ring was actually smaller than the Sherman, thus limiting its upgrade potential.