Bath to Build First DDG 1000
By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS
The U.S. Navy’s first DDG 1000 destroyer will be born in Maine, joining a list of first-of-class destroyers stretching back well into the last century.
General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works will build the first of the two Zumwalt-class DDG 1000 advanced destroyers funded by Congress in 2007, the Navy announced Sept. 25. The decision alters the previous plan to build the first ship at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.
“The decision was reached after reviewing the current and future workload projections at each shipyard and soliciting input from both shipyards,” said Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a spokesman for Navy acquisition chief Delores Etter. “Resequencing of the delivery of the first ship ... best addresses current workload and better balances the surface combatant industrial base.”
The move could help keep costs down on the ships, Schofield said. The Navy estimates each ship will cost $3.3 billion to build, but independent estimates forecast figures as high as $5 billion or more.
“It is anticipated that this decision will have a favorable impact on the total cost of the lead ships, but it is premature to speculate, given that contract negotiations are ongoing,” Schofield said.
The Navy is building the two ships under an unusual “dual-lead-ship” strategy and expects to issue building contracts almost simultaneously to Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. But one of the ships will need to be designated as the lead ship to receive Mission System Equipment (MSE), a wide range of items purchased under contracts with Raytheon and BAE Systems. The items, Schofield said, include radar, the 155mm Advanced Gun System, undersea warfare systems, exterior communications and the total ship computing infrastructure.
Raytheon received a $994 million contract on Sept. 21 to continue work on MSE for each of the DDG 1000s.
Etter’s office made a special effort to deny the move had to do with Navy dissatisfaction with Northrop Grumman’s Ship Systems sector, which will build the new destroyers. Ship Systems has been severely criticized by the Navy for its work on the first two LPD 17 San Antonio-class amphibious ships and for seeking additional funding to help its yards in Mississippi and Louisiana recover from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
“This decision was absolutely not a punitive action against NGSS,” Schofield said. “The Navy is also pleased with the unprecedented level of participation and cooperation [between the Bath and Ingalls shipyards] during ongoing DDG 1000 detail design efforts.”
The move is widely seen as improving the relative shipbuilding situation at each shipyard.
Ingalls, which is still being repaired and modernized after Katrina, builds a variety of ships — the Navy relies on the Ship Systems sector for about two of every three of its surface ships. The yard builds DDG 51-class destroyers, LHD 8, LHA 6 and LPD 17-class amphibious ships and National Security Cutters for the Coast Guard.
Although shipbuilding schedules are steadily improving as the yard rebuilds, Northrop still faces a variety of issues, including outsourcing work and crafts and the hiring and housing of a skilled work force.
Bath is at the opposite end of the scale in terms of types of ships under construction. The yard builds only DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, with the last ship scheduled for delivery in 2011. Construction of that ship, the yet-to-be-named DDG 112, began Sept. 7, and Bath’s only ship under contract after that is the DDG 1000. The company has been concerned about maintaining its work force in the transition between the end of the long-running DDG 51 program and the start of DDG 1000.
“This is going to help us facilitate our transition from DDG 51 to DDG 1000,” Bath spokesman Jim DeMartini said. “It should allow us to move our work on the Zumwalts earlier.”
DeMartini declined to comment specifically on whether the move would eliminate the need for employee layoffs.
“Potentially,” it does, he said, “but we haven’t analyzed the situation. There are still a lot of details to be determined.”
Northrop also declined to comment directly on the move.
“Both shipyards will construct the first two ships of the class in near concurrent fashion under the Navy’s dual-lead-ship strategy, as the original plan indicated,” Ship Systems spokeswoman Debbi McCallam said in a written statement. “We are evaluating how this will affect our shipbuilding plan and other impacts of this change.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, applauded the decision, which she had urged.
“This is wonderful news for the skilled men and women of Bath Iron Works,” Collins said in a statement.
Construction contracts for DDG 1000 and 1001 will be issued during 2007, Schofield, said, with fabrication intended to begin in fiscal 2008. Both ships are expected to be delivered in 2013 (A.M.A.R.)
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