Course Correction for DDG 1000, Navy Will Replace Main Battery for Guided Missile Destroyer
The U.S. Navy’s controversial USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) class of guided missile destroyers raises the legitimate question of whether a ship is too transformational, or not transformational enough.
While the Navy Fact File states that DDG 1000 is the “largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world,” it’s a program that has been in existence for many years. It began as the SC-21 (Surface Combatant for the 21st century) research and development program in 1994, which included the “arsenal ship” concept. From that effort came a 16,000-ton land attack destroyer, designed to support expeditionary forces coming ashore and moving inland, emerged with two long-range guns and 128 missile tubes, called DD-21 (Destroyer for the 21st century). That program evolved into the DD(X) or Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer, with the characteristic tumblehome hull and stealth technology to operate in littoral waters against threats of the post-Cold War world. It was then designated as DDG 1000, with the intention of evolving that hull into an air defense cruiser called CG(X). In fact, at that time, the Navy was promoting the Surface Combatant Family of Ships, or SCFOS, which included the DD(X), CG(X), a new class of ships called LCS, and the Aegis cruisers and destroyers kept in the most upgraded configurations.
While many new and transformational technologies and concepts were developed and tested for DDG-1000—to include the Advanced Gun System (AGS) and Long-Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP)--the original program of 32 ships did not materialize (it was reduced to 24, then 12, then seven, and eventually three), and the CG(X) concept was cancelled. DDG 1000 was built around the main battery of two 155mm AGS guns that could fire the precision-guided, rocket assisted LRLAP rounds at targets 63 to 100 miles away with pinpoint accuracy. Using the multi-round simultaneous impact (MRSI), four rounds could be fired one after the other, each one on a separate flight path calculated to arrive precisely at the same time, such that the rounds could impact a different side of a structure at exactly the same time. The fact that the rounds cost as much as a Tomahawk missile doomed this projectile, and that doomed the gun, which together necessitated a new purpose for the ship.
https://www.marinelink.com/news/course-correction-ddg-navy-replace-main-493488