Statement of US Rep. Gene Taylor on the DDG-51/DDG-1000 Agreement

Things are moving quickly. Hang on...

April 7 2009, (Washington, DC) - In order to meet the Navy’s requirement for a 313 ship fleet, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Gary Roughead, proposed reducing the number of DDG-1000s Zumwalt-class destroyers and restarting production of the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

The Navy has been working with Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, the two builders of the Navy’s destroyer fleet, to reach an agreement on future surface combatant workload within the shipbuilding industry.

Under the agreement, the Navy would restart construction of DDG-51s at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, and General Dynamics would build three DDG-1000s at its shipyard in Bath, Maine.

The Navy’s decision to reduce the number of Zumwalts is based on affordability and the ship’s vulnerability to emerging threats.

The DDG-1000 is estimated to cost $5 billion per ship and the cost per DDG-51 is estimated to be $1.3 billion. Therefore, the Navy could get three DDG-51s for the cost of one DDG-1000.

The Navy will realize additional cost savings through economies of scale in constructing larger numbers of DDG-51s in series production, rather than three or less DDG-1000s. The Navy will also realize savings in leveraging its existing training and logistics pipelines for its current and future DDG-51s.

The reason that this is good news for the state of Mississippi is that Northrop Grumman will begin building the first two DDG-51 restart ships beginning in 2010 and they will continue building these ships over the next decade. Whereas, General Dynamics will build two or three DDG-1000s at most, stop production, and then restart their DDG-51 line.

I think Northrop Grumman made the right decision. They will continue to build the world’s most capable destroyer at a fair price to our citizens for many years to come. By agreeing to the DDG-1000-DDG-51 swap, Northrop Grumman is aligned with where the Navy sees its future.

Sounds like the deal is done. I agree with everything Gene Taylor is saying, and I would add it looks like the destroyer debate that began in the House last July just ended.

By my estimate, the huge winner is... Gene Taylor (D-Miss), who is without question the most important politician for the US Navy, because without his support on this issue no deal would ever get done.

Interesting times. I can't wait to see the budget, which appears to include 2 DDG-51s and the rest of the funding for DDG-1002 in FY 2010.