So, We're Going to Screw up DDG(X) too?

so we cheated & we lied & we tested. and we never failed to fail. it was the easiest thing to do.

There are some fundamentals of modern naval warfare that, for some reason, people seem determined to forget.

No matter how many times actual, real world war at sea proves something, there are over-credentialed, over-confident, and over-paid people manning swivel chairs.

The utility and cost-effectiveness of the multi-purpose naval gun have been demonstrated repeatedly.

The instances are legion in modern war at sea. I’ll pick just three. The Royal Navy experience in The Falklands War was the first post-Vietnam War reminder of how any ship that does not have a multi-purpose main gun is a danger to not just its crew, but to friendly forces ashore.

From Somalia to Libya, the post-911 conflicts are full of examples of 76mm, 100mm, and 5”/127mm main guns being the fastest, most effective, and least costly way of sending ordnance ashore to deal with enemy targets. Real world. Real war. Real effective.

In the last 15-months in the Red Sea have shown over and over that the US 5” and allies’ 76mm dual-use guns were essential to success. The Royal Navy is not all that happy that they decided to save money with their Type 45 destroyers by killing the anti-air capability of their 4.5” main gun.

OK, I think I’m made my point. We good here?

Fine.

Now, everyone here is familiar with the first peek we had at the DDG(X) prototype.

Looks solid. Nice evolutionary, flexible, multi-mission platform. Covers the known-unknown future-risk with lots of tools.

Just when you thought we were safe to argue just its cost and how many units we can build a year, it appears that the Good-Idea-Fairies produced by the same machine that begat LCS, DDG-1000, and the Franken-FREMM FFG we are trying to build, have put their horrible track record to work trying to make DDG(X) follow in the footsteps of CG(X).

We have not changed our bureaucracy and process. We have not changed the incentives and disincentives inside this organization that keeps producing and promoting the same type of person. Heck, in some cases—because we are incapable of holding senior people accountable—we have the same people.

Why should I expect a different result?

Well, thanks to Carter Johnson over at Naval News, we have an updated concept for DDG(X).

BEHOLD!

In the name of all that is holy…can we just fire everyone and start over?

The new rendering strikes the 5-inch Mark 45 gun entirely, a staple of U.S. Navy large surface combatants. The existing Mark 41 VLS modules have been rearranged, now installed in what appears to be four 8×2 cell modules stacked front to back. This design allows for additional room for larger diameter VLS modules in the future like Lockheed Martin’s G-VLS which Naval News covered here. The new rendering also appears to strike the 150 kilowatt laser that was mounted behind the VLS cells in the 2022 rendering, leaving that mounting area without any fitted weapon systems.

The front-facing bridge windows have been shrunk or stricken entirely.

Yes, in today’s very busy seas and small boats loaded to the gills with high explosives captained by people looking for 72 maidens…by all means, lets limit the OOD and Command Officer’s ability to use the MK-1 Mod-0 eyeball.

Of course.

There is good news, and an opportunity for the new SECNAV and his team. It isn’t too late to toss this proposal into the dustbin.

DDG(X) is continuing through its design and feasibility phase and the most recent render presented may not be the final design chosen by the U.S. Navy. The class is expected to begin construction in 2032. According to the U.S. Navy, DDG(X) will be the most complex ship ever fielded.

In a lot of areas, we need a “Program Stand Down.” We cannot afford to be stupid, again, with DDG(X), nor with F/A-XX.

Whatever is making these programs move at the speed of smell needs to be gutted and gibbeted. For 75 years, the Brightest People in the Room™ have been telling us naval guns were obsolete, but in every real world encounter with our messy and unpredictable world, we have needed them.

We no longer live in the post-Cold War land of the Lotus Eaters. Urgency and action. Embrace the good-enough, and publicly damn the pursuit of the perfect and transformational, as that narcissistic folly is what got us in to this mess.

Oh, and put a damn 5” Mark 45 on the front and at least one 76mm like the Italian warship Caio Duilio has two forward, aft.

h/t YouKnowWho