Future Firepower Navy Lays Groundwork for, Larger, More Lethal Next-Gen Destroyer.

• Author: Luckenbaugh, Josh

The Navy has begun development of a future guided missile destroyer that will bring increased firepower and efficiency to the fleet, even as the service is still in the midst of constructing Flight III of its Arleigh Burke-class large surface combatants.

While the Navy considers the Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyer the world's most capable surface combatant platform, the service "has maximized the space, weight, power and cooling capabilities" through 30 years of upgrades to the hull form. Hence, the need for the Navy's NextGeneration Large Surface Combatant program, or DDG(X), said a Navy spokesperson in an email. The first of the Arleigh Burkeclass ships was commissioned on July 4,1991, and the destroyer since then has gone through several evolutions. The latest, Flight III, is centered around the Raytheon-made SPY-6 air and missile defense radar, which enables the ship to "simultaneously perform" anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense and "satisfies the Navy's critical need for an enhanced surface combatant Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability," a service fact file said.

The service plans to deliver the first of the Flight III Arleigh Burkeclass ships, the USS Jack H. Lucas, this year, Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro said during a keynote address at the Surface Navy Association's annual conference in January. In its 2024 budget request, the Navy is seeking $5 billion to acquire two Flight III destroyers.

In that same budget proposal, the Navy is requesting $187.4 million in research-and-development funding for DDG(X), the followon to the Arleigh Burke class.

According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Navy's fiscal year 2023 shipbuilding plan published in November, the service has indicated DDG(X)'s "initial design prescribes a displacement of 13,500 tons," nearly 40 percent greater than the 9,700-ton displacement of the Arleigh Burke class. This increased capacity will give DDG(X) immense flexibility for the future, the Navy spokesperson said.

Initially, DDG(X) will have the same combat system elements as the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers--including the Aegis Weapons System "that provides area coverage and command/control focus in all dimensions of Naval Warfighting and Joint Military Operations"--plus two 21-cell Rolling Airframe Missile launchers, the spokesperson said. "DDG(X) will be built following an evolutionary, or incremental, process with the introduction of minimal...