The Navy will buy the first of its Future Surface Combatants in 2023 – a large warship that will be built to support the Arleigh Burke Flight III combat system and will pull elements from the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) and Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) destroyer designs.
The combatant – not dubbed a cruiser, and potentially not dubbed a destroyer either – will be bigger and more expensive than the Arleigh Burke Flight III design and will have more room to grow into for decades to come, the director of surface warfare (OPNAV N96) told USNI News today.
The existing Burke hull and electrical power capacity has reached the end of its ability to handle upgrades--like rail guns, for example--that the Zumwalt can handle; so the new hull must be able to handle the technology that the Zumwalts can add.
Pulling elements from the Zumwalt design that foundered on costs is interesting:
Regardless [of how many Zumwalts are built], the research and development costs won't be lost. By canceling the ship class, it looks fiscally responsible but it really isn't. It's just accounting, since the next ship built using the exact same technology that by the rules has to be counted against the cost of the ship the research was done for will use Zumwalt technology that is now already paid for. Voila! A cheaper warship.
Ah, the magic of accounting rules.
As I wrote in the above post, I'd be happier if R & D was separated from production costs when deciding whether to produce the results of even excessive R & D costs, which are sunk costs.
Or we can pretend that the technology that goes into the next large surface warship was just found by an admiral walking down the beach and so is essentially free.
