Words written on the front:
On January 12, 2022, at the American Surface Ship Association National Symposium, the U.S. Navy presented a "preliminary conceptual design draft" for the next-generation destroyer DDG(X). Judging from the design drawings displayed on site, the design of the DDG(X) is more conservative and traditional than that of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers, and will adopt a phased development model, with the initial construction of a "baseline" version using all mature technologies, and gradually evolving to a "future" version using various new technologies. Construction of the first destroyer is scheduled to begin in 2028.
For this new type of destroyer, netizens have a variety of different interpretations, some people say that this is a "cottage" for China's 055 big drive, some people praise and some people depreciate. This article as far as possible from an objective point of view, from the R & D background, technical details, the future outlook of the three aspects of its interpretation, the total length of the text of about 6,000 words, divided into two articles released, hope to understand the ins and outs of the ship friends please be patient to read.
DDG(X) concept design PPT
Background of DDG(X).
In 1991, the former Soviet Union collapsed overnight, and the Former Soviet Red Navy, which once frightened the U.S. Navy, also fell into rapid decline, a large number of naval ships were scrapped due to lack of maintenance funds and technology, ships under construction were stopped for various reasons, and the strength of the new Russian Navy fell to the lowest point ever. At the same time, the U.S. military, with its 1991 Victory in the Gulf War, is at its peak. With the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy lost its biggest imaginary enemy overnight, so the U.S. Navy began a large-scale adjustment to the construction plan of the future equipment system.
The peak of the Red Navy of the former Soviet Union
In view of the fact that there was no naval force in the world at that time capable of launching a conventional maritime offensive and defensive war with the U.S. Navy, the equipment construction plan of the U.S. Navy changed from "great power competition" and competition for control of the sea to "from sea to land", emphasizing the Navy's combat capabilities and land attack capabilities along the coast, and the final result of this theory was the US Navy's LCS "Littoral Combat Ship" and the DDG-1000 "Zumwalt" class destroyer. Among them, the "Littoral Combat Ship" is defined as a multi-purpose modular light combat ship, mainly for the imaginary enemy coastal mysterious small combat ships, and can carry out the naval special forces littoral infiltration operations force projection and mine clearance missions. The DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers are primarily designed to launch long-range land attacks from the sea, so they are designed with a highly stealthy hull and a large number of targeted weapons, such as a 155 mm naval gun that can fire guided artillery shells.
USS Independence Littoral Combat Ship
At the same time, the U.S. Navy began phasing out a variety of specialized ships that had been developing since the 1970s, all of which were designed for a traditional maritime offensive and defensive war with the Red Navy of the former Soviet Union, such as the DD-963 Spruance-class destroyers and the FPG-7 Perry-class frigates, which focused on ocean-going anti-submarine warfare. Instead, the DDG-51 Burke-class destroyers, which entered service in July 1991 and were originally positioned as anti-aircraft guided-missile destroyers, gradually evolved into a "all-round" destroyer, and by strengthening anti-submarine capabilities and anti-missile capabilities, replaced the various special ships built in the early stage to become the main battleship of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy's equipment construction plan at that time mainly considered fighting an "asymmetrical" maritime battle with countries that did not have strong maritime power, such as launching an attack on land from the sea and defending against the threat of enemy ballistic missile attacks. Since the U.S. Navy had de facto gained control of the sea at that time, the traditional battle for sea supremacy was not the focus of its equipment construction.
Spruance-class destroyer
Objectively speaking, the U.S. Navy's plan at that time did not make much mistake, and the problem was in the development of the "Littoral Combat Ship" and "Zumwalt" class destroyers that cooperated with the "Burke" class destroyers. Because the research and development of equipment in the United States is driven by the interests of military industrial groups, the research and development of these two types of ships is mixed with too many interest factors. In order to make the highest possible profits, American arms dealers continue to introduce a variety of seemingly high-end so-called "high-tech" concepts, resulting in the development of these two types of ships blindly pursuing "high technology", in addition to rising costs and continuous delays in progress, due to a variety of overly aggressive immature technology brought about by the reliability problems, but also has been constantly plagued by these two types of ships.
Zumwalt-class destroyer
It is precisely because these two types of ships have been so useless that the U.S. Navy's Burke-class destroyer fleet has to take on too many day-to-day tasks that should have been completed by other relatively inexpensive special ships. The U.S. Navy's consistent global deployment strategy has forced a large number of ships to be deployed overseas for a long time, and under this intensity of use, the U.S. Navy's Burke-class destroyer fleet is declining in terms of integrity and combat readiness. The U.S. Navy, which once boasted of its ship maintenance capabilities, has become a "rust fleet" in recent years for every ship that has ended its deployment and returned to port. The continuous occurrence of collisions at sea reflects the current "embarrassing" state of the US Navy in terms of equipment and personnel training!
Burke-class ship crash
At the same time, with the development and recovery of the economy, the surface ship strength of the Russian and Chinese navies is developing rapidly. Because the two countries have clearer ideas and goals for future maritime operations, the equipment development plans of the two navies are more suitable for carrying out traditional maritime offensive and defensive operations. Although the strength of the two navies cannot shake the global supremacy of the US Navy at present, at least the days when the US Navy operated at will near the coast of the two countries are gone! It is precisely because of this pressure that the U.S. Navy has re-listed "great power competition" as the main goal of its future equipment construction since the mid-10s of this century, in addition to abandoning the "coastal combat ships" and "Zumwalt" class destroyers that have no appearance, it has also launched a number of new future main battle surface ship development plans, including the next-generation frigate program FFG(X) and the next-generation destroyer program DDG(X), in an effort to make the U.S. Navy's future surface ship system, return to and adapt to "great power competition" need. At present, the dust has settled on the FFG(X), and the Italian-designed FFG-62 Constellation-class frigate will become the future main frigate of the US Navy. The announcement of the DDG(X) preliminary plan also allows the outside world to see the development concept of the US Navy's future equipment construction gradually returning to the traditional maritime offensive and defensive development.
FFG-62 constellation-class guided-missile frigate
Detailed interpretation of the preliminary DDG(X) protocol
The Burke-class destroyers currently equipped by the U.S. Navy are designed in the 1980s and have evolved to the Block III batch, and the overall technical level is no longer comparable to that year. However, the basic design of this type of ship has seriously lagged behind the times, and for a series of new technologies such as new phased array radar, large weapons and equipment, and high-energy laser weapons in the future, its tonnage, power, and energy supply have reached the limit of development, and it is unrealistic to continue to improve on the platform. Therefore, designing a completely new platform became the most important part of the DDG(X) plan.
Burke Type 3
In fact, whether it is the FFG(X) plan or the DDG(X) plan, the U.S. Navy emphasizes the use of mature existing technology, combined with the newly designed hull platform, to combine ships that can be quickly built and equipped for use by troops. Perhaps learning the lessons of the failed development of the Zumwalt-class destroyers, the U.S. Navy has become very tight in controlling the technical risks of these two types of ships.
In the tender for the "Constellation" class frigate, the U.S. Navy finally chose the Italian plan, because the U.S. domestic military enterprises did not have a ready-made mature hull platform design, which could meet the needs of the U.S. Navy in terms of performance and schedule. Since the Perry-class frigates commissioned in the 1970s, the U.S. Navy has in fact abandoned the development of 4,000-6,000-ton platforms, which are commonly used by European navies, so adopting the mature design of European allies is a rather appropriate choice for reducing research and development risks and accelerating progress.
The Italian Bergamini-class frigate is the winning platform for FFG(X).
The new hull platform of the DDG(X) requires a larger tonnage than that of the Burke-class destroyers, and the current displacement of the Burke-class is about 9,000 tons, and the new platform is expected to reach between 12,000-13,000 tons to meet the demand for power and energy supply. For this tonnage platform, there is no mature and suitable solution to choose from in the United States and among allies, so it must be newly developed, and in order to control the risk and accelerate the speed, it can only be developed in a gradual and gradual manner. The initial "baseline" version of the ship seems to be only used to improve the new hull platform, its weapons and equipment and electronic systems are basically used in the equipment that has been used for the "Burke" Block III destroyer, and the later "future" version will consider the installation of various new technologies and new equipment currently under development. The purpose of this is also to achieve the construction and delivery of this type of ship as soon as possible, so as to avoid the overall progress of the new technology research and development being hindered.
DDG(X) design scheme