OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF NAVY LEAGUE OF AUSTRALIA
Published 1920 to 1932 then continuously from April 1938
75 Years of Publication.

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DD-21, THE 21ST CENTURY'S DREADNOUGHT
By Sebastian Matthews

With the RAN currently studying the requirements for its new Air Warfare Destroyer THE NAVY looks at the US's own new destroyer program with the question 'what can the RAN learn from DD-21'? The U.S. Navy's 21st Century Zumwalt-class Land Attack Destroyer (DD-21) will comprise 32 ships and be the first in a family of 21st century surface combatants. This next-generation warship will be a multi-mission destroyer focused on land attack operations. DD-21 will replace aging Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates (FFG-7) and Spruance-class destroyers (DD-963) and provide forward presence and credible deterrence while operating independently or as an integral part of a Naval, Joint, or Combined Expeditionary Force. In order to ensure effectiveness in Joint littoral operations, DD-21 will feature active and passive survivability features, such as in-stride mine avoidance capability and full-spectrum signature reduction, as well as a robust C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance Reconnaissance) suite to support the USN's evolving network-centric warfare concept. The Navy has successfully executed a competitive, price-based acquisition strategy for DD-21 that addresses 21st century Fleet requirements and takes advantage of industry's vast resources, expertise, and ingenuity. The DD-21 Program's streamlined acquisition approach seeks maximum innovation and design flexibility while facilitating cost savings through use of commercial market technologies, non-developmental items, and privatised life-cycle support. Program leaders have aggressively implemented acquisition reform initiatives and empowered industry at the earliest possible stage of the ship's concept design in order to achieve revolutionary design capabilities and substantially lower total ownership cost for DD-21.

Program Status

USN officials have instituted a unique acquisition approach for the Zumwalt class Land Attack Destroyer (DD-21) that provides industry with an overarching set of operational requirements and cost parameters instead of detailed design and performance specifications. This less restrictive approach encourages innovation and offers industry maximum latitude (i.e. trade space) to guide their proposals for developing, building, delivering, and supporting the 32-ship class throughout its service life. Two industry teams are competing for DD-21 - the Blue Team, led by Bath Iron Works (BIW) with Lockheed Martin Corp. as systems integrator; and the Gold Team, led by Ingalls Shipbuilding Inc. (ISI) with Raytheon Systems Co. as systems integrator. Contractual management for both teams is administered by the DD 21 Shipbuilder Alliance, a cooperative business unit formed by BIW and ISI. The USN plans to select the winning team's DD-21 System design shortly. The first ship award is scheduled for fiscal year 2005 with fleet delivery in fiscal year 2010.

ZUMWALT

When USS ZUMWALT, the lead ship of the DD-21 class, goes to sea in 2010 it will be just over 100 years since the Royal Navy's battleship HMS DREADOUGHT entered service. Both ships have much in common. For their time they proved to be exceptionally powerful combatants that not only introduced a range of new weaponry and tactics but also took to sea new propulsion and manning concepts. The revolutionary nature of the DREADNOUGHT made other battleships already in service obsolete. The ZUMWALT has the potential to do the same.

Why the Revolution ? Another commonality between the DREADNOUGHT and the ZUMWALT is that both ships were produced by the pre-eminent Navy of its time. At first glance it seems an illogical move to introduce revolutionary new ships when you have a leading position with the status quo fleet. But like 1905 the need for revolution today is clear and cannot be avoided. The drivers for the radical Zumwalt design are:
· Operations. The growing demands of high intensity networked operations in the littoral waters. This mission stems from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Vision 2010 as well as the US Navy-Marine Corps Forward…From the Sea and Operational Manoeuvre from the Sea strategies. This requires a ship with greater systems integration, offensive capability and survivability.
· Acquisition and Support Costs. To meet the required numbers of capable surface combatants the US Navy could not afford the similar costs of the DDG 51 Arleigh Burkes. To achieve substantial savings a new acquisition strategy is being applied. It gives the competing Blue and Gold team industry contenders much greater freedom and scope for innovation. The aim is to produce the fifth and subsequent Zumwalts for about $US750m each. Equally ambitious is the aim to reduce operation and support costs by 70%.
· People. Existing personnel costs account for 40-60% of the life cycle operating costs of a surface combatant. Not only are large ship's companies very expensive but they are increasingly hard to recruit, train and retain. The USN DD-21 concept team aims to cut operating and support costs to 30% of a DDG 51. As a result the goal for DD-21 is to have a crew of 95, including the helicopter aircrew!

What will be Revolutionary about the Zumwalts ?

There is much that will be new with the Zumwalts. They include: · The first destroyer specifically designed for littoral and land attack operations; · The first ship designed to conduct network centric warfare; · The first large stealth combatant; · The first major ship where the sailor is engineered into the ship from the beginning; · The first second generation electric drive combatant; · The first third generation phased array destroyer.

A Closer Look at the Zumwalts

Manning Whether the Zumwalts are able to operate with 95 personnel is questionable. But what is clear is that their crew size will be dramatically smaller than the DDG-51 class of destroyers. How will this be achieved? Top down human systems integration (HIS) is vital. A fresh look at the myriad of shipboard activities combined with providing the dollars to come up with hardware or software solutions will lead to fewer personnel required for watchkeeping, replenishment evolutions and maintenance. At the same time the need to retain people in the Navy will be addressed by vastly improved living conditions (two berth cabins, gyms, satellite entertainment and training facilities) and reducing the need for laborious cleaning, painting and watchstanding.
Stealth and Survivability
The radical shape of the Zumwalt is driven by the need to reduce its radar, visual, acoustic and infra-red signature. This will dramatically cut detection and identification opportunities for enemy surveillance assets and missiles. It also increases the effectiveness of Zumwalt's decoys. Features will include extensive use of composite materials, an advanced degaussing system, increased system redundancy, more automated damage control and sensor systems using the Reduced Ships' Crew by Virtual Presence (RSVP) concept. RSVP will include a comprehensive, wireless, intra-compartment sensor network using motion, fire, flooding, stability and gas sensors in almost all compartments. RSVP will also provide Personnel Status Monitors that will track the location and health of all personnel onboard.
Information Management
As you would expect the information management systems in the Zumwalt will be leading edge technology. At the heart will be the Whole Ship Computing System that will use commercial-off-the-shelf open architecture. The aim of the onboard combat information system will be to correlate data from a much wider array of external and internal inputs and then integrate and filter information to enhance battlespace awareness. It is anticipated the shape and layout of the Operations Room will be revolutionary.
Weapons and Sensors
Land Attack. The Zumwalts will strike enemy land targets 1500nm away with the future Advanced Land Attack Missile (ALAM) while the 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) will deliver precision guided rounds out to 200nm. The ships will feature a Naval Fires Control System (NFCS) which will automatically process and assign land attack fire missions to ship and task group weapon systems. This is network centric warfare in action.
Air Warfare. The Zumwalts will take to sea two new phased array radar systems. It will use the VSR (Volume Search Radar) for long range air detection and the SPY-3 MFR (Multi-function Radar) for surface search and fire control. In addition it will have the advanced integrated electronic warfare system (AIEWS) (See THE NAVY Vol 62 No.4) incorporated into one of the phased arrays. The weapons associated with these sensors will be the Standard family of missiles. As a result the Zumwalts will be able to engage more targets than a DDG-51 and be better able to deal with the demands of a littoral battlespace.
Underwater warfare. The DD-21 underwater sensor suite will be the most extensive to date and include hull mounted sonar for submarine and mine detection, and a multi-function towed array. These will be linked to remote minehunting systems, decoys and torpedoes.
Aviation
The Zumwalts will be the first surface combatant in about 40 years to be built to take UAVs (remember the DASH). The UAVs will combine with manned aircraft to conduct the full spectrum of surface warfare and undersea warfare tasks.
Propulsion
A major DD-21 innovation is the adoption of an electric drive integrated power system (IPS). IPS revolutionizes warship design. Gone are reduction gears and lengthy propeller shafts. The number of prime movers is reduced and there is greater flexibility about their location. IPS frees up space for more fuel or weapon systems. It also dramatically reduces maintenance and manpower demands. The savings in manpower may be about 20% with a similar saving in fuel efficiency. Equally important is the reduction in thermal and acoustic signature of the ship.
Logistics
The DD21 will introduce many changes to traditional logistic support. Industry will be the Full Service Contractor. This is part of the idea of looking at the complete cradle-to-grave costs of providing capability. As such greater emphasis is being spent on:
· reducing maintenance;
· making it easier to upgrade systems;
· increasing commonality with future ships (such as the cruiser variant of DD21); and,
· satellite reach back to logistic and diagnostic databases and expertise.

"Our new DD 21 Land Attack Destroyer is Star Trek technology. A state-of-the-art warship, DD 21 represents a revolution in surface combatant design and acquisition and will provide direct land-attack support for forces ashore." - Rear Admiral Michael G. Mullen USN, Former Director of Surface Warfare Division

DD-21 and the RAN

While the DD21 would be an impressive addition to the RAN, at a sail away price of $US750m each, it is problematic whether it would ever fly the Australian White Ensign from its quarterdeck. Nevertheless the Zumwalt will have a profound effect on the RAN in two ways. First it will likely introduce and debug some systems may be fitted to the RAN's Air Warfare Destroyer and future ships. More importantly though the Zumwalt shows that:
· Surface combatants can be built that possess impressive offensive and defensive capabilities well suited to the complex and demanding littoral environment.
· The adoption of best practices in design, acquisition, logistics and technology has the potential to provide affordable combat capability.
These lessons are directly relevant to a personnel and dollar constrained RAN that in the next decade must deliver considerable combat power in the littoral environment.