A Ship With Few Friends

From this mornings Clips, an Inside the Navy story with the title Taylor: Stop DDG-1000 Buy At Two Hulls.

“It’s safe to say that [Murtha and I] are in agreement that we would stop at two [DDG-1000 hulls] and look at other and better uses of those funds,” Taylor said.

The $2.5 billion requested for a third DDG-1000 could be better spent on building additional DDG-51 destroyers, which have proven to be very capable ships for the Navy, Taylor argued.

“I would hope that in the course of everything we could make it clear that for the same amount of money we could build at least twice as many, and close to three times as many, DDG-51s as DDG-1000s,” he said. “That’s going to provide man hours for the shipyards, provide the best bargain for the taxpayer and what’s best for the Navy.”

There are 5 DDG-1000s yet to be built. Twice as many would be 10 DDG-51s, and three times as many would be 15. Among the suggestions, they want to stick the AGS on the DDG-51. The article goes on to quote Taylor saying these ideas come from inside the Navy. I think that sounds right.

I think it would be pretty tragic for Congress and the Industry if the DDG-1000 gets canceled and some money doesn't go to pay for a first in class frigate alternative. Rather than three times as many DDG-51s, twice as many DDG-51s and building both MMC versions of the LCS hull would be very smart in my opinion, because first in class costs are always high anyway, and more options are good.

It does two very important things. It puts the US on the export market for small warships, which would be a boost for the shipbuilding industry. Second, it gives the Navy an option for the future to build small combatants as an alternative in the low mix of the fleet.