Within the next 30 days or so, the U.S. Navy is scheduled to take
a major step toward development of a futuristic new propulsion system
that will substantially change the way that its ships are designed
and built. That’s the plan, anyway, providing the Bush administration
allows the controversial project to go forward.
By the first of April, the Navy intends to choose a single team
of contractors to design and build the first of its Zumwalt-class
21st century land-attack destroyers (DD-21), which will include
an electric-drive propulsion system, featuring an integrated power
architecture.
The Navy decided last year to install electric drive in the DD-21.
Making that change will be as important to the Navy as the transition
"from sail to steam or from propeller to jet engines,"
according to Richard Danzig, who was Navy secretary at the time.
"Electric drive will reduce the cost, noise and maintenance
demands of how our ships are driven," he said. "More importantly,
electric drive—like other propulsion changes—will open
immense opportunities for redesigning ship architecture, reducing
manpower, improving shipboard life, reducing vulnerability and allocating
a great deal more power to warfighting capability."
Because electric drive is significantly quieter than traditional
propulsion systems, Navy officials explained, it increases a ship’s
stealth capability, the ability to avoid enemy detection.
Electric drive is a transmission system, not an engine, Navy officials
explained. The engine can be almost anything, a diesel, gas turbine
or even steam turbine. Electric drive is a new way of transferring
power from the engine to the rest of the ship.
A key design element of the new system is a single-source generator
for all of the ship’s power needs—an integrated power
system—including both propulsion and combat systems, officials
said. This design eliminates the drive shaft and reduction gears
found in traditional Navy ships, freeing up large amounts of internal
space for other uses, such as habitat improvements.
Electric drive eventually will be used on most future Navy surface
ships and submarines, officials said. Danzig announced last year
that the first vessel to get the new system will be the DD-21.
The DD-21 is intended to be a multi-mission destroyer, designed
specifically for land-attack warfare. One of its primary missions
will be to support ground forces, the latest evolution in the way
that destroyers have been used by the Navy.
Known as "greyhounds of the sea," destroyers first evolved
a century ago to protect world shipping against an emerging class
of small, fast torpedo boats. The first U.S. destroyer was the USS
Bainbridge (DD-1), launched on August 27, 1901. In World Wars I
and II, destroyers turned their weapons primarily against submarines.
During the Cold War, guided missiles were added to their armament,
greatly strengthening their ability to strike enemy aircraft, surface
combatants and targets deep inland.
The DD-21 is intended to follow the Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class
of destroyers, which was first deployed in 1991. The Navy plans
to build 58 of the DDG-51s, which feature the Aegis electronic combat
system, before the end of the decade.
The DD-21 class of ships will be named for the late Navy Adm. Elmo
Zumwalt, chief of naval operations from 1970 to 1974, the youngest
man ever to hold that job.
The DD-21s are scheduled to replace the 1970s-era Spruance (DD-963)
class of destroyers and Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7) class of frigates,
both of which are reaching the ends of the service lives.
Blue and Gold
The Navy plans ultimately to build 32 DD-21s at an average cost
of $750 million each for a total of about $25 billion. In coming
weeks, the service aims to select a team of contractors to complete
the design and build the first four ships. Construction of the lead
ship is set to begin in 2005, with delivery in 2010. Two teams are
competing for the contract:
Both teams are working separately to design their own electric-drive
systems. The Blue Team’s effort is being led by General Dynamics’
Electric Boat shipyard, in Groton, Conn. The Gold Team is working
with Newport News Shipbuilding, of Newport News, Va. Both teams
are designing systems based upon permanent-magnet motors.
The two designs are being evaluated by the Navy’s Integrated
Power System (IPS) Program Office, which is also working independently
to integrate electric drive into the overall ship structure. "These
systems have to be tailored to the ship’s design," IPS
Program Manager Mike Collins, based in Arlington, Va., explained
to National Defense.
Although electric drive has been used for years by cruise ships,
the Navy has higher standards, Collins said. "DD-21 has to
go further and quieter than any cruise ship," he noted.
Competition between the two teams is fierce. For the winning team,
the contract "means significant income over the next several
years," Thomas Bowler, BIW’s vice president for business
development, told reporters at the recent Surface Navy Association
symposium in Arlington, Va. The Navy plans to spend between $3 billion
and $5 billion on research and development work for the DD-21.
After the first four ships are built, the Navy plans for the two
teams to share the work of building the remaining 28 ships, as BIW
and Ingalls have been sharing the construction work for the DDG-51s.
Navy officials have concluded that such an arrangement is necessary
to ensure the survival of at least two shipyards capable of building
surface combatants.
With billions of dollars at stake, the two teams are playing their
cards close to the chest. The Gold Team is saying little about its
design until the Navy makes its decision. Because of the engineering
requirements that the service is placing on both teams, however,
the two designs look much alike, officials said.
Automation of many time-consuming crew assignments—such as
maintenance, cleaning, damage control and even combat operations—will
permit the crew to be reduced from 325 officers and enlisted personnel
on DDG-51s to 95 or fewer on DD-21s, Bowler said.
Most of the reductions were made among junior enlisted personnel,
he said. The DDG-51s have 250 E-5s and below, while the DD-21 will
have less than 50.
Under the Blue Team concept, the DD-21 would be operated by four
15-person watch teams, working in a highly automated bridge and
an advanced mission-control center (MCC), and using multi-modal
workstations and task-managed prompting. The MCC would control the
entire ship, replacing today’s combat-information center,
sonar control, engineering-control center and damage-control center.
The watch team could concentrate on strategy and tactics, making
decisions on accurate and relevant information.
The four-section watch would provide "tremendous leverage
in dealing with crew fatigue," Bowler said. It would enable
all hands usually to get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, even
when the ship is underway.
The smaller crews and elimination of the ship’s drive shaft
and reduction gears would open up more space that ship designers
will be able to use to improve the quality of life for sailors on
board.
"DD-21 will be the first ship designed for the sailor from
the keel up," Bowler said. Traditionally, he noted, sailors
on ships have been housed in large, open, poorly lit berthing compartments,
with bunks stacked three or more high.
According to the Blue Team design, DD-21 sailors would live in
staterooms, with a maximum of three people per room and individual
privacy built into the design, Bowler explained. In these quarters,
each sailor would have a personal computer, with e-mail, Internet
connection and CD-ROM. In addition, each would have his or her own
flat-screen television monitor mounted in the sleeping area.
The ship would have modern recreational facilities, including fitness
centers, libraries and lounges. Drudge work, such as paint chipping
and mess duty, would be eliminated.
The emphasis on individual privacy would make it easier to assign
women to the DD-21, officials said. Women have served on surface
combatant ships since the mid-1990s, they noted.
The smaller crews mean that fewer Navy personnel would be placed
in harm’s way during combat. Because their role, during wartime,
is to seek out and destroy enemy warships and other military targets,
destroyers often suffer heavy casualties. During World War II, more
than 70 U.S. destroyers were sunk. The USS Cole lost 17 sailors
last year to a terrorist assault in Yemen.
Survivability
The DD-21 is being designed to increase its chances—and those
of its crew—of surviving such attacks. Blue Team proposals,
in addition to increased stealth, include a shock-resistant double
hull, a robust electrical system and an integrated magazine protection
system.
"Zonal distribution and redundancies will ensure that the
loss of no single space will cripple the ship," Bowler said.
Automated damage-control operations would include robotic fire-fighting
technology, with built-in sensors able to preconfigure and reconfigure
systems for combat. They would monitor equipment status and detect
smoke, fire and flooding.
In the event of damage, the first response would be through the
Ship Systems Automation (SSA), Bowler explained. "SSA detects,
isolates and contains damage much more effectively than conventional
approaches," he said.
Automation would be augmented by rapid-response teams who will
have the equipment and skills to handle any event, Bowler said.
Guided by a readiness-control officer in the mission-control center,
the teams would use sensors, wireless communication, wearable computers
or mini-cams and personal location devices to gain and maintain
situational awareness.
DD-21 will be the first class of destroyers designed "to operate
in the littorals, rather than in blue water," and to concentrate
on land targets, rather than ocean-going ones, Bowler said. Its
weapons package will feature:
In addition, the Navy is making plans to insert new weapons systems,
such as laser technology and electric guns, as they become available,
noted Kendall Pease, vice president for communications at General
Dynamics in Falls Church, Va.
"As soon as the procurement process for this ship gets under
way, they’ll be coming out of the woodwork with new weapons
systems for it," Pease told reporters. "What makes all
of this possible is electric drive."
What remains to be seen, however, is just how much support DD-21—and
electric drive—will receive from the Bush administration.
During his election campaign, President Bush promised to transform
U.S. military services, placing "a new and greater emphasis
on research and development (R&D)."
In a speech at the Citadel, in South Carolina, he pledged to increase
spending for defense-related R&D by $20 billion "between
the time I take office and 2006." He also promised to "earmark
at least 20 percent of the procurement budget for acquisition programs
that propel America generations ahead in military technology."
In addition, Bush proposed "to skip a generation of technology"
in order to introduce truly revolutionary weapons systems.
As a particularly promising idea, he singled out the arsenal ship,
a discarded concept that shared many of the characteristics of the
DD-21—a stealthy vessel, packed with long-range missiles to
destroy targets from great distances.
Long List
The problem is that the DD-21 is just one of a long list of new
weapons systems under Pentagon consideration. These include a national
missile-defense system, three tactical fighter aircraft and new
Army vehicles.
And the Navy wants to bolster its aging fleet by building, in addition
to the DD-21, more Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and whole new
generations of aircraft carriers, submarines and amphibious assault
ships.
Developing all of this hardware, some officials have estimated,
could add as much as $100 billion a year to the current $300 billion
defense budget. Yet, in his campaign, Bush proposed defense-spending
increases of only $4.5 billion per year.
This means, according to industry insiders, that some major programs
may have to be canceled or postponed. High on that list, they said,
is the DD-21.
For one thing, they noted, the DD-21 is still in the early planning
stages, while the F-22 fighter, MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor and Joint
Strike Fighter are already flying.
Also, some analysts have argued that the DD-21 is unnecessary.
Navy Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, president of the Naval War College
in Newport, R.I., has proposed instead to build a class of small,
heavily-armed ships called "street fighter," capable of
speeds up to 60 knots. That is twice the planned speed of the DD-21.
Such a ship, Cebrowksi said, would operate better in offshore waters
than the DD-21.
Submarine advocates, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., have
proposed giving the land-attack mission to Trident ballistic-missile
submarines. They have suggested refitting four of them, which are
headed for retirement, with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can
fire as far as 1,000 miles inland.
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Eugene Carroll, vice president of the Center
For Defense Information, of Washington, D.C., questions the value
of electric drive technology. "I have yet to be sold on it,"
he told National Defense. It seems to him, the former aviator said,
that electric drive simply puts one more step "between the
power and the screws."
Carroll also has deep reservations about DD-21, which he describes
as "simply the Navy’s means of competing with the Air
Force for the deep-strike mission."
The Navy "no longer has to fight for control of the sea,"
Carroll said. "There’s nobody out there to fight any
more."
Navy officials, at press time, said they continue to support development
of DD-21. The fiscal year 2002 budget request that the Navy plans
to submit to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "contains
full funding for DD-21," according to Jon Walman, head of public
affairs for the Program Executive Office for Surface Strike, in
Arlington, Va.
At the recent Surface Navy Association meeting, Navy Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Vern Clark renewed his commitment to the ship. "I
want what DD-21 brings to us, and we need it," he told the
audience.
Particularly attractive to the Navy is the Blue Team claim that
its design will reduce operations and support costs for the ship
by 42 percent.
"That’s billions and billions of dollars that the Navy
and the taxpayer can use for other purposes," said Mike Hughes,
a Lockheed Martin vice president.
For the time being, all that those involved in the DD-21 project
can do is wait until the Bush administration’s 2002 budget
request is released, perhaps as late as April, to see what happens.
"It probably depends on what the CNO wants to do," said
Pease. "It all depends on the bottom line. Given a blank check,
this is a super program. It needs real leadership."