Tag Archives: DDG(X)

Burke Updates

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A few interesting pieces of news when it comes to everyone’s favorite current class of destroyers.

When it comes to contracts, two recent DoD announcements highlight the very real difference in cost between giving the early Flight I Burkes a service life extension to keep them in the fleet for at least 35 years (which includes baseline nine upgrades through the DDG Modernization program) and the much more extensive MOD 2.0 modernization of “middle-aged” Flight IIA Burkes which includes the new SPY-6 radar and hulking AN/SLQ-32(V)7 system.

Thus:

USS Pinckney (DDG 91) Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided missile destroyer leaving San Diego after a two-year DDG MOD 2.0 upgrade with SEWIP Block 3 – November 7, 2023, via the San Diego Warship Cam

For reference, DDG 56 entered service in 1994– making her 30 years young– while DDG 97 came along in 2005.

Emphasis mine:

BAE Systems – San Diego Ship Repair, San Diego, California, is awarded a $177,821,136 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract modification to previously awarded undefinitized contract action N00024-24-C-4423 for the repair, maintenance, and modernization of the USS Halsey (DDG 97), a Chief of Naval Operations Fiscal 2024 Depot Modernization Period (DMP). The scope of this procurement includes all labor, supervision, facilities, equipment, production, testing, and quality assurance necessary to prepare for and accomplish the USS Halsey (DDG 97) Fiscal 2024 DMP. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $225,596,312. Work will be performed in San Diego, California, and is expected to be completed by April 2026. Fiscal 2024 other procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $82,826,616 (98.3%); fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance, Navy (OMN) funds in the amount of $1,409,569 (1.7%); and fiscal 2024 defense-wide procurement funds in the amount of $21,203(.03%), will be obligated at the time of award, of which $1,409,569 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured, but in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204 (a) (3) (Industrial Mobilization). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-24-C-4423).

Vigor Marine LLC, Portland, Oregon, is awarded a $76,102,395 firm-fixed-price contract action for maintenance, modernization, and repair of USS John S McCain (DDG 56) Fiscal 2025 Docking Selected Restricted Availability. The scope of this acquisition includes all labor, supervision, equipment, production, testing, facilities, and quality assurance necessary to prepare for and accomplish the Chief of Naval Operations Availability for critical maintenance, modernization, and repair programs. This contract includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $84,194,754. Work will be performed in Portland, Oregon, and is expected to be completed by November 2025. Fiscal 2024 other procurement, Navy funds for $76,102,395. This contract was competitively procured using full and open competition via the System for Award (SAM) website, with two offers received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N0002424C4407).

For those keeping track at home, the keel for the future USS William Charette (DDG 130), the 80th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, was laid during a ceremony last week at General Dynamic Bath Iron Works (BIW). The fifth Flight III Burke, she is expected to be commissioned around 2029. The last Burke on the schedule, the future USS Michael G. Mullen (DDG 144) will be the 93rd of her class.

190318-N-DM308-001 WASHINGTON (March 18, 2019) An artist rendering of the future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS William Charette (DDG 131). (U.S. Navy photo illustration/Released)

Meanwhile, money is flowing to bring the planned Burke replacement, DDG(X), online, scheduled to enter production in 2032 (don’t hold your breath):

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Ingalls Shipbuilding Division, Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a cost-plus fixed fee not-to-exceed $10,601,959 undefinitized order to previously awarded contract (N00024-22-C-2319) for the computer aided design product lifecycle management proof of concept Phase Two in support of the DDG(X) Guided Missile Destroyer Design. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by February 2026. Funding in the amount of $7,951,469 was obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The statutory authority for this sole source award is in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii) – only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-22-C-2319).

Three strikes and you’re out, destroyer edition

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General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works posted images of the PCS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer, as the sleek and futuristic-looking 15,000-ton warship sailed away from BIW just over a decade after the vessel was awarded to the builder. She is toothless, heading to my hometown of Pascagoula for the next couple of years to receive her weapon fit. 

She does not have a commissioning date set as far as I can tell.

While 32 were planned, the Navy just has class-leader Zumwalt (DDG-1000) active while the second vessel, Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), is still listed as “in commission, special” going on three years after her delivery.

As the trio of ships has a lot of possibilities– and, if nothing else, still carries 80 Mk57 VLS cells each– hopefully, they can reach full maturity in whatever realistic future role they can fill.

At the same time, PEO Ships released a seven-page report on the planned DDG(X) that will fill the giant hole left in the fleet by the canceled Zumwalts and aging early Burkes, with construction to start as soon as 2028.

Notional Navy DDG(X) hull design. PEO Ships Image

As noted by Sam LaGrone over at USNI News:

The Navy wants its next warship to fire hypersonic missiles and lasers that would be ten times more powerful than the service’s existing laser weapons, according to the most detailed outlook to date of the DDG(X) next-generation warship issued by the service.

The warship, the largest the Navy’s attempted in more than 20 years, is designed to provide the service with the power to drive a new generation of directed energy weapons and high-power sensors that will follow the Navy’s current fleet of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers

To me, the notional DDG(X) looks like an update of the planned “strike cruiser” concept of the late 1970s or the spitballed Aegis rebuild of the old USS Long Beach from the same period.

USS Long Beach (CGN 9), concept by T.G.Webb of proposed anti-air warfare modernization with the Aegis Fleet Air Defense System FY77. NH 90071

We shall see…