Here Comes the Analysis of Alternatives for the CG(X)

InsidetheNavy (subscription) has the story.

A study refining the definition of the future CG(X) cruiser was recently completed and will be vetted by Navy officials in the near future, a top shipbuilding official said here last week.

Rear Adm. Bernard McCullough, the Navy’s director of warfare integration (N8F), told Inside the Navy on Oct. 24 that the analysis of alternatives (AOA) for the new cruiser recommends “about four” variants.

One of those options calls for splitting the ship program and building two different size hulls for the surface combatant, one based on the DDG-1000 destroyer and one that is larger, he confirmed.

“There’s about four options and that’s one of the options,” McCullough told ITN at an expeditionary warfare conference in Panama City, FL.

The analysis -- conducted by researchers at the Center for Naval Analyses -- will be “briefed out to Navy leadership, starting in about another two weeks,” McCullough said.

Following the Navy discussions regarding the Analysis of Alternatives *AOA), the Defense Acquisition Board will meet to define milestone A. The Defense Acquisition Board was originally scheduled to meet October 10th, but that meeting was canceled and no future meetings are scheduled.

Too bad the Analysis of Alternatives is limited to the CG(X). I'd like to see a study on littoral warfare as a result of the new maritime strategy and its increased focus on missions other than war and small wars from the sea.