Zumwalt: Still Looking Good

This Defense News article by Chris Cavas covers the three main points of the DDG-1000 program to date. The first is specific to shipbuilding, and whether this program is going to be well run or another in a long list of problematic programs that fail to perform.

"We're on time, we're on budget. We're within budget," Capt. James Downey declared during an interview earlier this month. "We're hitting the milestones within the program."

Zumwalt, lead ship of the class, is more than half complete, Downey reported, and will be more than 60 percent complete when a ceremonial keel-laying is held Nov. 17 at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

A construction contract for the second and third ships, the Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) and yet-to-be-named DDG 1002, was awarded to Bath on Sept. 15. Construction of the Monsoor is more than a quarter complete; fabrication of DDG 1002 is set to begin next spring.

What about cost?

"Within about the next four to five months, all the negotiations will be done on all three ships, so you'll see what those numbers are," Downey said. "Except for life-cycle support, all procurement will be done."

Procurement for the Zumwalt was about $3 billion, Downey said. "I'm hesitant on specific numbers for the second and third ships, but they're coming below what the first ship was."

Zumwalt is being built under cost-plus contracts, he noted, but most of the work on the other two ships will be under fixed-price agreements.

I still believe it is very possible the first DDG-51 Flight IIA restart is going to cost more than any of the three of the DDG-1000s. There are too many rumors circulating discussing the high cost of the DDG-51 restart to ignore that possibility. One might get the impression the Navy is going well out of their way lately to hide the real costs of both destroyer programs for that specific reason - the Navy believes they need to get the DDG-51 restart going before they reveal any cost problems.

Finally, the big challenges ahead.

"We tested the complete propulsion system in local control," Downey said. "It pretty much passed with flying colors," although some test equipment needed upgrading. "We made no changes to any of our [ship] equipment."

The advanced induction motor (AIM) - heart of the integrated power system - "has performed very well," Downey said. "It met all the requirements at land-based testing. It exceeded the requirements."

Officers and crew of the DDG 1000 have already been reporting for duty, Downey said, with several members spending time this summer underway on British Type 45 destroyers, which also use AIM engines.

That is good news, but this is the area I'm watching.

Work on the sixth and final set of software needed to deliver the ship, the machinery control system programming, will be refined beginning in January with tests in Philadelphia and final delivery from Raytheon expected in January 2013.

Another software release will follow for the combat system after the ship is launched, Downey added.

"Most of the software work is done, however, many of the risks have yet to be retired because the systems aren't running in full form up in the ship. So we have two to three years yet to go on that work.

If Raytheon can deliver on the software for DDG-1000 on time and on budget, this program is going to end up being the exception to every shipbuilding program over the last decade. Delivering on the software side is a bigger challenge than this article leads the reader to believe, but it is still possible.

Pretty soon we will start seeing pictures from BIW. A few are already starting to surface.