The first in a class of three revolutionary U.S. Navy vessels, known as the DDG 1000, was underway for the first time conducting at-sea tests and trials in December 2015. Within the 7 days trial tests,the shipbuilder, subcontractors and Navy personnel tested systems including small boat operations, integrated propulsion system and auxiliary systems over more than 100 hours of testing.

The Procurement Cost of Three Vessels at $ 3,5 Billion

The DDG-1000 program was initiated in the early 1990s. The DDG-1000 is a multi-mission destroyer with an emphasis on naval surface fire support (NSFS) and operations in littoral waters. The DDG-1000 is intended to replace, in a technologically more modern form, the large-caliber naval gun fire capability that the Navy lost when it retired its Iowa-class battleships in the early 1990s, to improve the Navy’s general capabilities for operating in defended littoral waters, and to introduce several new technologies that would be available for use on future Navy ships. The DDG-1000 was also intended to serve as the basis for the Navy’s now-cancelled CG(X) cruiser. OnApril 2006 the Navy announced that the first DD (X) destroyer will be designated DDG 1000.On 14 February 2008 the Navy exercised contract modifications for the construction of the dual lead ships of the Zumwalt class (DDG 1000) to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding.The Construction USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), named for former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt, commenced in February 2009 and launched Oct. 28, 2013.

The first two DDG-1000s were procured in FY2007 and split-funded (i.e., funded with two-year incremental funding) in FY2007-FY2008; the Navy’s FY2016 budget submission estimates their combined procurement cost at    $ 8,797.9 million. The third DDG-1000 was procured in FY2009 and split-funded in FY2009-FY2010; the Navy’s FY2016 budget submission estimates its procurement cost at $ 3,490.8 million.

Zumwalt Reduce Operating and Support Costs

The DDG 1000 Zumwalt class destroyers will be a multi-mission surface combatant designed to fulfill volume firepower and precision strike requirements. This advanced warship will enable access in the open ocean, littoral and ashore and provide impressive forward naval presence while operating independently or as an integral part of Naval, Joint, or Combined Expeditionary Strike Forces.  Armed with an array of advanced weapons, the DDG 1000 program brings sophisticated new technologies that will deliver evolutionary capability and help shape the future of surface warfare.

The DDG-1000 is to have a reduced-size crew of 142 sailors (compared to roughly 300 on the Navy’s Aegis destroyers and cruisers) so as to reduce its operating and support (O&S) costs. The ship incorporates a significant number of new technologies, including an integrated electric-drive propulsion system and automation technologies enabling its reduced-sized crew.

With an estimated full load displacement of 15,482 tons, the DDG-1000 design is roughly 63% larger than the Navy’s current 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers, and larger than any Navy destroyer or cruiser since the nuclear-powered cruiser Long Beach (CGN-9), which was procured in 1957.The 16,000-ton destroyer is equipped with two high power Rolls Royce MT-30 gas turbines and two smaller Rolls-Royce RR450 gas turbines that can output up to 80 megawatts – giving the ship a wide margin for future power hungry sensors and weapons.