A Navy-commissioned study slated to wrap up this month will determine the required combination of hull form and radar to combat anti-ship ballistic missiles, a finding that could lead to the future use of the DDG-1000 platform truncated by the service last year, according to an August briefing slide by Rear Adm. Frank Pandolfe, the director of surface warfare.

The “DDG hull and radar study” is looking at the “required capability against emerging threats” and proper “hull/radar combination to meet the requirement,” Pandolfe’s brief states.

Last summer, the Navy announced its intentions to truncate the DDG-1000 destroyer program at three hulls and instead buy additional DDG-51 vessels -- a decision Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead touts in his 2010 guidance released last week.

However, in January, then-Defense Department acquisition czar John Young sent a memorandum to senior Pentagon and Navy officials arguing the Navy’s future destroyer fleet beyond fiscal year 2011 remained unclear.

“From FY-12 through FY-15, the [Defense Department] will procure guided-missile destroyers based on either the DDG-51 hull or the DDG-1000 hull,” Young wrote in the Jan. 26 memo, marked “For Official Use Only -- Pre-decisional” and sent to senior service and DOD officials.

Young dubbed the undefined destroyer as the “future surface combatant.”

In June, Navy requirements chief Vice Adm. Barry McCullough told a Senate panel that a study on future surface ship capabilities was under way, led by Johns Hopkins University. This study is described in Pandolfe’s brief, a Navy official at the Pentagon confirmed late last week.

“Along with the [defense secretary] and [the office of the secretary of defense], we’ve embarked on a study that’s being led by Johns Hopkins University that’s addressing that right now,” he said. “And from that study, we will see what capability is achievable to get us at the heart of the threat with limited technical risk and where that best fits with respect to hull form and then what the best path for the replacement cruiser is to come out of that study.”

The future surface combatant is not an actual ship, McCullough explained to reporters following the June hearing.

“When we determine what radar capability we need, then we’ll determine what’s the best hull form” for future destroyers purchased in FY-12 and beyond, the three-star admiral said.

According to the August briefing, the study will determine the future threat of anti-ship ballistic missiles and next-generation anti-ship cruise missiles and the required hull and radar necessary to combat the threat. This will compare the capabilities of the DDG-51 class of destroyers versus the DDG-1000 class.


For more information go to: www.futuresurfacecombatant.org