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CG(X)
Encyclopedia
The CG(X) program, also known as the Next Generation Cruiser program, was a US Navy program to replace its 22 Ticonderoga class
cruisers after 2017. Original plans were for 18-19 ships, based on the 14,500 ton Zumwalt class
destroyer but providing ballistic missile defense and area air defense for a carrier group. The program was canceled in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review
. The mission will instead be taken up by Flight III DDG-51s destroyers, after the Navy concluded that the ships could rely on off-board and space based sensors and so did not need a radar bigger than the DDG could carry.
. The Navy's response was the Surface Combatant for the 21st Century
(SC–21) program. This envisaged a destroyer called DD–21 and a planned cruiser called CG–21. Budget cuts in November 2001 meant that SC–21 became the less ambitious Future Surface Combatant program. The DD-21 was renamed the DD(X), which is about to begin construction as the Zumwalt class
destroyer. By April 2002, the DD(X) was to be the "foundation" for a family of surface combatants, including CG(X) as the successor to the CG–21. The Ticonderogas will reach their retirement age of 35 years between 2021 and 2029, although the Navy may use upgrades to extend their lives to 40 years.
However, concerns began to grow about the stability of the Zumwalts hull. Naval architect Ken Brower said in April 2007 that "as a ship pitches and heaves at sea, if you have tumblehome instead of flare, you have no righting energy to make the ship come back up. On the [Zumwalt ], with the waves coming at you from behind, when a ship pitches down, it can lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water - and basically roll over." There were also doubts whether the Zumwalt hull was big enough to accommodate ballistic defense weapons, and a possible nuclear propulsion system. In July 2007 came the first suggestions that the AOA might recommend a two-class solution, a 14,000 ton "escort cruiser" based on the Zumwalts stealthy "tumblehome
" hull, and a ballistic missile defense ship of 23,000 tons. The latter would use a more conventional shape than the tumblehome, as its use of radars to search for missiles while on station would make a stealthy hull pointless. In July 2008, Roscoe Bartlett of the House Seapower subcommittee stated that it was "unlikely the [Zumwalt ] hull could be used in the CG(X) program".
Missile Defense (TBMD) radar will consume 31 MW. In July 2008, Young said that "for the most capable radar suites under consideration, the [Zumwalt] hull cannot support the radar".
Meanwhile members of the House Projection Forces Subcommittee had been pressing the Navy to use nuclear power for major combatants, partly as a response to concerns about the price and availability of oil. They prompted studies in 2005 and 2006, the second of which stated that nuclear power broke even at an oil price of $70–$225/barrel for escort ships of 21-26,000 tonnes with heavy radar use. This led to a requirement in the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act that all major combatant vessels be nuclear powered unless it was not in the national interest.
The Navy studied nuclear power as a design option for the CG(X), but has never announced whether it would prefer to build the CG(X) as a nuclear-powered ship - it would have added $600–800m to the initial cost of the ship, but save on running costs. Under normal budgeting practices, long lead-time items for nuclear propulsion would have needed to be procured in FY2009 if the main ship were to be procured in FY2011. If the two-class solution had been pursued, it seems probable that the escort cruiser would have used gas turbines like the Zumwalt, and the larger ballistic missile defense ship would have been nuclear powered, and hence known as the CGN(X).
The AOA apparently looked at two options, using two of the Seawolf class submarines'
34 MW reactors, and halving the 209 MW double reactor used in aircraft carriers. The first option would not even match the Zumwalt for power, while the second option probably wouldn't fit into the Zumwalt hull. On the other hand it would give plenty of headroom for future weapon systems such as directed-energy weapons and railguns, hence the proposal for the BMD ship of a larger hull with nuclear propulsion.
Cobra Judy missile-tracking radar on USNS Observation Island. As mentioned above, a future Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) radar is being modelled as consuming 31 MW of electrical power, compared to 5 MW for the AEGIS system on an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
.
appears to be shaping the Navy's thinking on the CG(X)'s capabilities, when previously the Zumwalts air defense was believed to be good enough to justify delaying the introduction of the CG(X).
The Kinetic Energy Interceptor
(KEI) program is developing new weapons against ballistic missiles, but the KEI missiles take up six times more space than SM-3's and a Zumwalt-sized hull could not carry a meaningful number. The KEI may be dropped from the CG(X) program.
A reassessment in 2007 suggested spliting the CG(X) into two classes, fourteen Zumwalt-sized "escort cruisers" and five 23,000 ton ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships. There was political pressure for some or all of these ships to be nuclear powered, which would have given them the hull classification symbol of CGN(X).
The FY2009 budget called for procurement of the first CG(X) in 2011, and the second in 2013.
On 1 February 2010, President Obama unveiled his proposed budget for FY2011. This budget called for, among other things, cancelling the entire CG(X) program.
Ticonderoga class cruiser
The Ticonderoga class of missile cruisers is a class of warships in the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in FY 1978. The class uses phased-array radar and was originally planned as a class of destroyers...
cruisers after 2017. Original plans were for 18-19 ships, based on the 14,500 ton Zumwalt class
Zumwalt class destroyer
The Zumwalt class destroyer is a planned class of United States Navy destroyers, designed as multi-mission ships with a focus on land attack. The class is a scaled-back project that emerged after funding cuts to the larger DD-21 vessel program. The program was previously known as the "DD"...
destroyer but providing ballistic missile defense and area air defense for a carrier group. The program was canceled in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review
Quadrennial Defense Review
The Quadrennial Defense Review is a study by the United States Department of Defense that analyzes strategic objectives and potential military threats. The Quadrennial Defense Review Report is the main public document describing the United States's military doctrine.As stipulated in the 1997...
. The mission will instead be taken up by Flight III DDG-51s destroyers, after the Navy concluded that the ships could rely on off-board and space based sensors and so did not need a radar bigger than the DDG could carry.
Background
In the early 1990s, the U.S. armed forces had to respond to new threats and budgets after the end of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. The Navy's response was the Surface Combatant for the 21st Century
SC21 (United States)
SC-21 was a program started in 1994 to design land attack ships for the United States Navy. A wide variety of designs were examined, including an arsenal ship with 500 cruise missiles, but eventually a "tumblehome" design of around 16,000 tons with two long-range guns and 128 missile tubes...
(SC–21) program. This envisaged a destroyer called DD–21 and a planned cruiser called CG–21. Budget cuts in November 2001 meant that SC–21 became the less ambitious Future Surface Combatant program. The DD-21 was renamed the DD(X), which is about to begin construction as the Zumwalt class
Zumwalt class destroyer
The Zumwalt class destroyer is a planned class of United States Navy destroyers, designed as multi-mission ships with a focus on land attack. The class is a scaled-back project that emerged after funding cuts to the larger DD-21 vessel program. The program was previously known as the "DD"...
destroyer. By April 2002, the DD(X) was to be the "foundation" for a family of surface combatants, including CG(X) as the successor to the CG–21. The Ticonderogas will reach their retirement age of 35 years between 2021 and 2029, although the Navy may use upgrades to extend their lives to 40 years.
Hull
In April 2002, John Young, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, stated that "the DD(X) hull will be the base from which they propose the design changes necessary to evolve this to CG(X). That could include various things from lengthening the hull and changing the size, but it will be, to our view, likely the basic hull form shape, appropriately sized and with the proper features added to accommodate the CG(X) mission". The Chief of Naval Operations claimed in 2005 that "the DD(X) hull and propulsion plant will be spiraled into the CG(X) platform with about 80% design overlap". In the same testimony, he stated that designing a new hull would cost about $4 Bn.However, concerns began to grow about the stability of the Zumwalts hull. Naval architect Ken Brower said in April 2007 that "as a ship pitches and heaves at sea, if you have tumblehome instead of flare, you have no righting energy to make the ship come back up. On the [Zumwalt ], with the waves coming at you from behind, when a ship pitches down, it can lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water - and basically roll over." There were also doubts whether the Zumwalt hull was big enough to accommodate ballistic defense weapons, and a possible nuclear propulsion system. In July 2007 came the first suggestions that the AOA might recommend a two-class solution, a 14,000 ton "escort cruiser" based on the Zumwalts stealthy "tumblehome
Tumblehome
In ship designing, the tumblehome is the narrowing of a ship's hull with greater distance above the water-line. Expressed more technically, it is present when the beam at the uppermost deck is less than the maximum beam of the vessel....
" hull, and a ballistic missile defense ship of 23,000 tons. The latter would use a more conventional shape than the tumblehome, as its use of radars to search for missiles while on station would make a stealthy hull pointless. In July 2008, Roscoe Bartlett of the House Seapower subcommittee stated that it was "unlikely the [Zumwalt ] hull could be used in the CG(X) program".
Propulsion
The CG(X) would have used the IPS electric propulsion system of the Zumwalt, as of the FY09 budget estimates in February 2008. The Zumwalts gas turbines are capable of generating 78 MW, and that was thought barely sufficient for the radar and future weapon systems on the CG(X) - the working assumption is that the entire ship's electric load, including a Theater BallisticMissile Defense (TBMD) radar will consume 31 MW. In July 2008, Young said that "for the most capable radar suites under consideration, the [Zumwalt] hull cannot support the radar".
Meanwhile members of the House Projection Forces Subcommittee had been pressing the Navy to use nuclear power for major combatants, partly as a response to concerns about the price and availability of oil. They prompted studies in 2005 and 2006, the second of which stated that nuclear power broke even at an oil price of $70–$225/barrel for escort ships of 21-26,000 tonnes with heavy radar use. This led to a requirement in the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act that all major combatant vessels be nuclear powered unless it was not in the national interest.
The Navy studied nuclear power as a design option for the CG(X), but has never announced whether it would prefer to build the CG(X) as a nuclear-powered ship - it would have added $600–800m to the initial cost of the ship, but save on running costs. Under normal budgeting practices, long lead-time items for nuclear propulsion would have needed to be procured in FY2009 if the main ship were to be procured in FY2011. If the two-class solution had been pursued, it seems probable that the escort cruiser would have used gas turbines like the Zumwalt, and the larger ballistic missile defense ship would have been nuclear powered, and hence known as the CGN(X).
The AOA apparently looked at two options, using two of the Seawolf class submarines'
Seawolf class submarine
The Seawolf class is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines in service with the United States Navy. The class was the intended successor to the , ordered at the end of the Cold War in 1989. At one time, an intended fleet of 29 submarines was to be built over a ten-year period, later...
34 MW reactors, and halving the 209 MW double reactor used in aircraft carriers. The first option would not even match the Zumwalt for power, while the second option probably wouldn't fit into the Zumwalt hull. On the other hand it would give plenty of headroom for future weapon systems such as directed-energy weapons and railguns, hence the proposal for the BMD ship of a larger hull with nuclear propulsion.
Sensors
The CG(X) radar system would likely have been a development of the AN/SPY-3 dual-band radar of the Zumwalt class. It might also heve been influenced by the replacement for the AN/SPQ-11AN/SPQ-11
The AN/SPQ-11 Cobra Judy is a PESA radar found on the Observation Island-class missile range instrumentation ship.It is used for space tracking, ballistic missiles tracking and other instrumentation....
Cobra Judy missile-tracking radar on USNS Observation Island. As mentioned above, a future Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) radar is being modelled as consuming 31 MW of electrical power, compared to 5 MW for the AEGIS system on an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Arleigh Burke class destroyer
The Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers is the United States Navy's first class of destroyer built around the Aegis combat system and the SPY-1D multi-function phased array radar. The class is named for Admiral Arleigh "31-Knot" Burke, the most famous American destroyer officer of...
.
Weapons
A CG(X) based on the Zumwalt hull would lose one or both of its guns, and replace them with more VLS launchers for SM-2, SM-3 and SM-6 SAMs. However, the Zumwalts lack of capability in air defense and BMD was cited as a major reason for the near-cancellation of the class in July 2008. Recent intelligence that China is developing targetable anti-ship ballistic missiles based on the DF-21DF-21
The Dong-Feng 21 is a two-stage, solid-propellant, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics Technology Academy. Development started in the late 1960s and was completed around 1985-86, but it was not deployed until 1991...
appears to be shaping the Navy's thinking on the CG(X)'s capabilities, when previously the Zumwalts air defense was believed to be good enough to justify delaying the introduction of the CG(X).
The Kinetic Energy Interceptor
Kinetic Energy Interceptor
The Kinetic Energy Interceptor was a planned U.S. missile defense program whose goal was to design, develop, and deploy kinetic energy-based, mobile, ground and sea-launched missiles that could intercept and destroy enemy ballistic missiles during their boost, ascent and midcourse phases of flight...
(KEI) program is developing new weapons against ballistic missiles, but the KEI missiles take up six times more space than SM-3's and a Zumwalt-sized hull could not carry a meaningful number. The KEI may be dropped from the CG(X) program.
History
The CG(X) program was announced on November 1, 2001. An initial requirement for 18 CG(X) was raised to 19 under the plan for a 313-ship Navy in 2005.A reassessment in 2007 suggested spliting the CG(X) into two classes, fourteen Zumwalt-sized "escort cruisers" and five 23,000 ton ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships. There was political pressure for some or all of these ships to be nuclear powered, which would have given them the hull classification symbol of CGN(X).
The FY2009 budget called for procurement of the first CG(X) in 2011, and the second in 2013.
On 1 February 2010, President Obama unveiled his proposed budget for FY2011. This budget called for, among other things, cancelling the entire CG(X) program.
See also
- Kirov class battlecruiserKirov class battlecruiserThe Kirov-class battlecruiser is a class of nuclear-powered military ships of the Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships currently in active operation in the world. The Russian designation is heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser...
- The largest and only (partially) nuclear-propelled cruisers remaining with any navy - Type 45 destroyerType 45 destroyerThe United Kingdom's Type 45 destroyer is an air defence destroyer programme of the Royal Navy which will replace its Type 42 destroyers. The first ship in the class, HMS Daring, was launched on 1 February 2006 and commissioned on 23 July 2009. The ships are now built by BAE Systems Surface Ships...
- New British destroyer - Horizon class frigateHorizon class frigateThe Horizon Common New Generation Frigate is a multi-national collaboration to produce a new generation of anti-air warfare frigates. Originally an alliance of Britain, France and Italy, the project is now a French/Italian effort following the withdrawal of Britain due to differing requirements...
- French and Italian air defence destroyer - Type 052C destroyer - Chinese air defense ship