US NAVY


USS Virginia was actually built in 10 sections but the latest ships are being produced in four modules.


Europe and the US. In Europe, the British CVF and French PA 2 will be built in a number of massive blocks, which will be virtually complete when they are joined on the slipway, and this form of construction is now widely practised for smaller warships in Europe. By contrast, the next generation US carrier,


USS Gerald Ford (CVN 78), which will feature a host of innovations and several hundred small modules, will be built in the traditional way with a keel, ribs, and hull plates apparently because there is no assembly hall big enough for jumbo modules. Conversely, General Dynamics' (GD)


Electric Boat Division builds the Virginia (SSN 774) class fleet submarines in large, near-complete modules in the same way as the Astutes are being built. USS Virginia was actually built in 10 sections but the latest ships are being produced in four modules. Yet the US Navy is, in many ways, the


architect of its own misfortune. Both the Zumwalt and the LCS demonstrate an obsession with sophisticated technology amounting almost to a junkie seeking a 'fix,' and the one supreme lesson in defence procurement over the past 50 years is that technical risk equals higher costs. The 14,000tonne 'destroyer' is now regarded


as little more than a technology demonstrator for new sensors, weapon launching systems, computer-based systems, and propulsion/ power production. LCS is being developed based on a bizarre requirement for high (40knots or more) speed which drives sophisticated hulls, while the costs of the programme are augmented by a desire for mission modules, based largely on robot platforms which are still under development. At least the surface fleet yards face a steady


flow of orders, but GD faces a situation similar to that of BAE Systems, Barrow-in- Furness, with spurts of contracts followed by a dearth of work. The US Navy is ordering one Virginia


every year, which will rise to two by 2012, and this means there are peaks and troughs in work. It is hoping to fill in part of the troughs through maintenance contracts for locally- based submarines which would normally go through US Navy facilities. Negotiations were underway at the time of SAS but GD hopes that success will allow it to reduce the impact of 'slow' years. GD has begun negotiations for the Virginia


Block 3 and one of the few innovations at SAS was a model of a re-designed bow which might be incorporated in these boats. This would replace the current bow dome sonar with a conformal array, allowing the vertical missile cells in the forward part of the hull to be replaced by a space which could accept missile cell modules, or even modules for use by special forces.


Ballistic missile defence Details of US ballistic missile defence (BMD) ships were revealed during SAS. The full


WARSHIP TECHNOLOGY MAY 2007


References to amphibious warfare programmes were conspicuously absent.


Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), the Honourable Donald C Winter, discusses the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) acquisition programme during a press conference in the Pentagon. The new programme plan will improve management oversight, implement stricter cost controls, and incorporate ‘selective contract restructuring’.


interception capability including SM-3 Block 1A missiles will be in three cruisers; USS Shiloh (CG 67), Lake Erie (CG 70) and Port Royal (CG 73), together with four destroyers Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54), John S McCain (DDG 56), Stethem (DDG 63) and Decatur (DDG 73). Eight destroyers will have only the long range search and track capability and these are USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), Paul Hamilton (DDG 60), Fitzgerald (DDG 62), Benfold (DDG 65), Milius (DDG 69), Hopper (DDG 70), Higgins (DDG 76), and O'Kane (DDG 77). All the destroyers are Flight I and II ships


because the Aegis BMD 3-6 system is based upon older models of the Aegis system. An


updated version which will merge the newer, open-architecture systems with the BMD capabilities, is anticipated by manufacturers Lockheed Martin around 2010-2012.


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