DD(X) programme axed

News that the US Navy’s new destroyer/cruiser replacement ? DD(X) ? has been axed comes as a major blow to the Navy and to the US military in general. DD(X) has been described as the Navy’s ?must have ship? to replace both the Burke-class guided missile destroyers and the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers that have been the Navy’s mainstays for the past 25 years.

Costs for DD(X) have escalated with price estimates climbing past $7 billion per ship, versus the original $700 million per ship estimate from the late 1990s. Thus, on 27 April, Congress abruptly voted unanimously to change the DD(X) program to that of a two ship “technology demonstrator” Thirty ships had been originally planned which was later dropped to twelve. Congress has, however, it added $3.2 billion for two additional Littoral Combat Ships and one more Virginia-class nuclear attack sub.