April 15, 2007:
Whatever happened to the destroyer?
They seem to be disappearing. Part of the reason is cost, but there's also the
political correctness angle. Warships called destroyers appeared a century ago
and by the end of World War I they were ships of about 1,000 tons armed with a
few guns, some torpedoes and anti-submarine weapons. By World War II,
destroyers had grown to about 3,000 tons. There were also "Destroyer Escorts",
which were half to two-thirds the size of destroyers. The larger types of
surface warfare ships were cruisers, weighing in at between 6,000 and 12,000
tons, and battleships, which were 30-40,000 tons. Half a century later, all
that's left for surface warfare are destroyers and frigates, plus the usual assortment
of smaller coastal patrol boats that have always been around. For whatever
reason, the modern frigates perform the same mission (and are about the same
size) as the World War II destroyers. However, most Western navies don't even
like to use the term, "destroyer" any more. Warships displacing 3-5,000 tons
are increasingly called frigates. Sounds less warlike, or whatever.
Meanwhile, the modern destroyers have grown to the
size of World War II cruisers. Actually, some of the larger destroyers are called
cruisers, even though they are only 10-20 percent bigger than the largest
destroyers. The latest ships in the U.S. Navy's Burke class destroyers weigh
9,200 tons, cost $1.5 billion each to build, have a crew of about 330 sailors,
carry 96 (a combination of antiaircraft and cruise) missiles. There's only one
5 inch gun, but two helicopters. These modern destroyers could take on any
World War II cruiser and win, mainly because the cruise missiles have a range
of 1,500 kilometers. A Burke class ship could probably defeat a World War II
battleship, although we'll never know for sure since one of those heavily
armored ships never got hit by a modern cruise missile. In effect, the U.S.
Navy has settled on just three major combat ship types; aircraft carriers,
destroyers and nuclear submarines.
The original cruisers of a century ago displaced
less than 10,000 tons, but by World War II, that had increased by 50 percent.
Two decades ago, the U.S. Navy reclassified its Ticonderoga class destroyers,
which eventually displaced 10,000 tons, as cruisers. Now the U.S. wants build a
new class of destroyers, the DDG-1000, that displace 14,000 tons. These ships
will be 600 feet long and 79 feet wide. A crew of 150 sailors will operate a
variety of weapons, including two 155mm guns, two 40mm automatic cannon for
close in defense, 80 Vertical Launch Tubes (containing either anti-ship, cruise
or anti-aircraft missiles), six torpedo tubes, a helicopter and three
helicopter UAVs.
The problems is that these new "destroyers" will be
very large ships, and will cost over $2 billion each. At the same time, the new
LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) is sort of replacing the Oliver Hazard Perry-class
frigates. The Perrys are 4,100 ton ships that would cost about $200 million to
build today. The big difference between the frigates and LCS is the greater use
of automation in the LCS (reducing crew size to 75, versus 170 in the frigates)
and larger engines (giving the LCS a speed of about 90 kilometers an hour,
versus 50 for the frigates.) The LCS also has a large "cargo hold" designed to
hold different "mission packages" of equipment and weapons. The Littoral Combat
Ship is, simultaneously, revolutionary, and a throwback. The final LCS design
is to displace about 3,000 tons, with a full load draft of under ten feet,
permitting access to very shallow coastal waters, as well as rivers. This is
where most naval operations have taken place in the past generation.
Max range is 2,700 kilometers. Built using
commercial "smartship" technologies, which greatly reduce personnel
requirements, the LCS is expected to require a crew of about 50 in basic
configuration, but will have accommodations for about 75 personnel. The ship is
designed for a variety of interchangeable modules, which will allow the ships to
be quickly reconfigured for various specialized missions. Crews will also be
modularized, so that specialized teams can be swapped in to operate specific
modules.
All this is happening at a time when the U.S. Navy
is increasingly unhappy with the performance of American ship builders. Costs
are rising sharply, quality is down and the admirals can't get satisfactory
answers from the manufacturers. For example, the new class of destroyers, the
DDG-1000 class destroyers have also faced ballooning costs, up to as much as $3
billion per ship, as opposed to original planned costs of $800 million each.
The current Arleigh Burke-class destroyers only cost $1 billion each. The LCS
was planned (a few years ago) to cost $200 million each. That price has now
doubled.
The LCS is, what the original destroyer was. A
small, inexpensive vessel that could do a lot of dangerous jobs the more
expensive ships could now avoid. But unless the navy gets its shipbuilding
costs, and quality, under control, it won't be able to afford a new class of
destroyers. Unless, of course, it has an attack of common sense, and calls the
LCS destroyers, and the DDG-1000 ships cruisers.