CG(X) Next Generation Cruiser / Advanced Cruiser

The CG(X) is the Multi-mission follow-on to DD(X) with enhanced Missile Defense / Air Warfare capability. Development of CG(X), the next generation cruiser, will begin in the future. As a descendant of the DD(X) program, it will share with DD(X) a common propulsion architecture and a stealthier hull form. This hull form will contain an integrated all-electric power system that is more efficient and survivable than today's propulsion systems, and provides more power capacity for future weapons.

The CG(X) Next Generation Cruiser is a multi-mission ship required to perform self-defense, area air defense, and ballistic missile defense. The CG(X) must have a radar capable of operating in different environmental and mission regimes against a wide variety of potential targets and profiles. A scalable radar design with major improvements in power, sensitivity, resistance to natural and man-made environments over current radar systems is needed for multi-mission TAMD (BMD and Area AAW). Modularity of hardware and software, a designed in growth path for technology insertion, and Open Architecture (OA) Compliance are required for performance and technology enhancements throughout service life.

CG(X) will maintain air superiority over the total force. Larger, faster, and longer-range missiles will allow CG(X) to counter state-of-the-art air threats hundreds of miles inland and to perform other missions well in the littoral. A generation of air defense radars is currently under development to counter low-radar cross section (RCS) threats at extended ranges; CG(X) will not only provide sustained air superiority, but will also detect, track and engage ballistic missiles outside of the atmosphere.

	CA-71 QUINCY	CG-71 CAPE ST GEORGE	CG(X)
Commissioned	Dec 1943	June 1993	~2017
Displacement	17,000	9,950	+16,000
Complement	1,142	~380	150
Sensor Range	60 miles	~250 miles	500+ miles
Weapons Range	18 miles	800+ miles	1000+ miles
Battlespace Awareness	60 miles	Theater Wide	Global GIG

DD(X) / DDG-1000 Derivation

The backbone of the 21st century fleet will be the next-generation of surface combatants: the Littoral Combat Ship, LCS, the advanced multi-mission destroyer, DD(X), and the advanced cruiser, CG(X). Together with modernized cruisers and guided missile destroyers, these combatants will comprise the Surface Combatant Family of Ships (SCFOS).

The CG(X) would be a large, multimission surface combatant and use the same hull form [either a common or scalable hull], propulsion plant, and basic combat systems as the DD(X), but it might be larger and more expensive than the DD(X). As a descendant of the DD(X) program, CG(X) will share with DD(X) a common propulsion architecture and a stealthier hull form. This hull form will contain an integrated all-electric power system that is more efficient and survivable than today's propulsion systems, and provides more power capacity for future weapons. CG(X) will also use many of the same transformational technologies used in DD(X) to reduce crew size and operating and support costs.

The CG(X) would be derivative of the DD(X) design, but with a more powerful radar than the DD(X), as well as additional missile tubes in the place of the DD(X)'s AGSs. The CG(X) might be somewhat larger than the DD(X), and would have a procurement cost equal to or greater than that of the DD(X). The DD(X) would have a full-load displacement of about 14,500 tons, compared to about 9,000 tons for current Navy cruisers and destroyers.

DD(X) will be the technology engine for future ships such as CVN 21, LHA(R), and the advanced cruiser, CG(X).CG(X) and DD(X) will share many automated features, which presently are performed manually. The result will be a smaller crew for the CG(X). As with the DD(X), the crew's focus will be on fighting versus ship maintenance. CG(X) will project an umbrella of air and missile defense, protecting carrier and expeditionary strike groups, ground forces, and land-based air forces. It would carry the proposed Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) ballistic missile defense boost-phase interceptor.

When the Navy conceived this family of ships, a CG(X) had to be behind DD(X). The Navy knew it has to because missile defense is in the future. Advanced missile defense systems are going to come. As they do so, there was not sufficient power in the legacy platform to deal with the advanced systems that the Navy was going to have to create in the future, and that were going to potentially be available.

The CG(X) will fall on the heels of DD(X) and there is every expectation that there will be commonalities in hull forms or scalable hull. Larger, faster and longer-range missiles will allow CG-X to counter state-of-the-art air threats hundreds of miles over operating areas ashore and to perform other missions well in the littoral. Equipped with a new generation of air defense radars under development to counter low-radar cross section threats at extended ranges, CG-X will detect, track and engage ballistic missiles outside of the atmosphere.

One account suggested that the CG(X) will have an even stealthier hull form than the hull form found on the larger DD(X) destroyer. This advanced hull form helps to reduce radar identification by other ships. But at an April 5, 2006, hearing, Rear Admiral Charles Hamilton II,, the Navy admiral in charge of shipbuilding programs, testified that "... we're operating under the belief that the hull will fundamentally be - the hull mechanical and electrical piece of CG(X) will be the same, identical as DD(X). So the infrastructure that supports radar and communications gear into the integrated deckhouse would be the same fundamental structure and layout. I believe to accommodate the kinds of technologies CG(X) is thinking about arraying, you'd probably get 60 to 70 percent of the DD(X) hull and integrated (inaudible) common between DD(X) and CG(X), with the variation being in that last 35 percent for weapons ..."

Like the DD(X) destroyer, the CG(X) cruiser will have an all-electric Integrated Power System (IPS) that is more efficient and survivable than the propulsion systems found on today's ships. The IPS can provide power to the entire ship. The benefits of IPS are many: reduced costs of ownership, reduced construction costs, a power source for future energy -type weapons, improved survivability, and greater architectural flexibility.

Air and Missile Defense

Assuring access will be the Navy's major contribution to execution of the National strategy in the 21st century. Noting the lessons of Desert Storm, adversaries will work to prevent the buildup of US force through access denial strategies. These strategies will include missile attacks on the infrastructure supporting US power projection (ports, airfields and communications networks), political targets, and of course direct assaults on US military forces.

CG(X) will maintain air superiority over the total force. Larger, faster, and longer-range missiles will allow CG(X) to counter state-of-the-art air threats hundreds of miles inland and to perform other missions well in the littoral. A generation of air defense radars is currently under development to counter low-radar cross section (RCS) threats at extended ranges; CG(X) will not only provide sustained air superiority, but will also detect, track and engage ballistic missiles outside of the atmosphere.

Advanced Theater Ballistic Missiles (TBM), Overland Cruise Missiles (OCM), Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV), Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles (ASCM) and supporting surveillance and targeting systems pose a rising threat to the ability of US Naval forces to gain and sustain access. Therefore, development and deployment of effective Theater Air and Missile Defense (TAMD) capability is a crucial Navy capability in order to ensure that US forces are able to go "anywhere, anytime".

The concept of Sea Based Theater Air and Missile Defense (TAMD) is founded on emerging concepts related to Network Centric Operations (NCO). TAMD is based on enduring naval roles (forward presence, deterrence, crisis response, and projection of combat power) and on synergism that arises through the networking of complementary offensive and defensive capabilities. It builds combat power from the rapid networking of geographically dispersed warfighters, capitalizing upon significant improvements in weapons, sensor and information technologies to achieve non-linear increases in defensive capability.

The CG(X) cruiser will replace the Ticonderoga class AEGIS cruisers. The CG(X) will provide an "umbrella" of air and missile defense with longer -range missiles, protecting carrier strike groups and the other DD(X) vessels. It will also be able to track and engage ballistic missiles hundreds of miles inland. Currently the CG(X) is in the design phase. Like the DD(X), CG(X) will have many advanced features not found on present Navy vessels.

The CG(X) will able to launch larger, faster and longer-range missiles to counter inland air threats hundreds of miles away. These new missiles will also be able to perform other missions in littoral (near-shore) regions. A new generation of air defense radars will counter more elusive long-range, low-radar cross section threats. This will help provide sustained air superiority as well as detect, track and engage ballistic missiles beyond the atmosphere.

Northrop Grumman's Kinetic Energy Interceptor is similar to the PAC-3 and SM-3, in that it is a hit-to-kill system. While the PAC-3 and SM-3 are both about one foot in diameter and about 15 feet long; the KEI is four feet wide and 40 feet tall. Northrop Grumman plans to "cold launch" KEI from special KEI cells, intalled at an angle inside the CG(X) to reduces the hull depth and height requirements for the launching ship.

CG(X) will add capabilities for sea-based ballistic missile defense systems and higher power advanced sensors. Due to the need to provide high levels of power for sensors and weapons and target delivery, the CG(X) will require very highly capable electric power system.

CG(X) Program Plans

The 30-year shipbuilding plan that the Navy submitted to Congress in May 2003 called for the first CG(X) to be procured in FY2018. Although CG(X) was still in the concept stage, the Navy was taking a hard look at the joint capabilities gaps CG(X) will ultimately fill. By 2005 the Navy was making critical decisions now to determine what weapons and sensors she will carry, and how large CG(X) will need to be to provide those capabilities. CG(X) is being planned now to become operational toward the end of the next decade as the Ticonderoga-class cruisers approach 35 years of service life.

In January 2005 John Young, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition noted that "One analysis said that if you take today's carrier strike group, remove one DDG-51 and insert one DD-X, it would make a significant improvement in that carrier's self-defence capability ... the part that has been lost is that everybody thinks DD-X is a land-attack ship, and it is, but it also brings a dual band radar" and potential to hold SM-3 and SM-6 missiles for enhanced anti-air and anti-missile capabilities. Although the Navy maintains planned to transition from DD-X to a CG-X next-generation cruiser, given this new analysis of DD-X, Young said: "I don't see as much urgency for [moving to] CG-X."

The FY2006-FY2011 Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP) reduced planned DD(X) procurement to one per year in FY2007-FY2011 and accelerated procurement of the first CG(X) to FY2011. As of mid-2006 the Navy wanted to procure 7 DDG-1000s, 19 CG(X)s, and 55 LCSs. The FY2006 budget requests $716 million in advance procurement finding for the DD(X) program $666 million for the first DD(X), which is planned for procurement in FY2007 and 550 million for the second DD(X), which is planned for procurement in FY2008 and $1,115 million for DD(X)/CG(X) research and development.

Under the March 2005 version of the Navy's 30-Year Fleet Plan, the Navy planned to operate 18 CG(X) cruisers, a derivative of the DD(X) devoted to ballistic missile defense. In December 2005 the Navy decided on a plan to increase the size of its fleet to 313 ships by 2020. The plan was developed by Admiral Michael Mullen, who took over as chief of naval operations in the summer of 2005, would increase the current 281-ship fleet by 32 vessels and cost more than $13 billion a year, $3 billion more than the current annual shipbuilding budget. The plan scaled back goals for building the new DD(X) destroyer. The navy once planned 23 to 30 DD(X) ships, but the new plan had only seven. The plan called for 19 CG(X), with the first of those ships expected to be completed in 2017.

The Maritime Air and Missile Defense of Joint Forces (MAMDJF) Initial Capabilities Document was reviewed and validated by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) on May 1st, 2006. As part of the effort on CG(X), the Next Generation Cruiser, the Under Secretary for Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics), Kenneth Krieg directed, on June 16th, 2006, that an AoA examine the capabilities and cost of a range of options to address the gaps as defined in the MAMDJF.

Additional AoA clarification was specified by the Secretary of the Navy who stated in the cover-letter for his Report to Congress on Alternative Propulsion Methods for Surface Combatants and Amphibious Warfare Ships, dated January 12, 2007, that "The ongoing Analysis of Alternatives for the Maritime Air and Missile Defense of the Joint Force capability, which will include recommendation of a CG(X) platform alternative, is incorporating the methods of this study, and is examining both fuel efficient fossil-fueled power plants and nuclear power alternatives. Again, the selection of power plant architecture for a particular class of ship must include analysis of the cross-program considerations described above." In response to Representative Taylor's question to the Secretary of the Navy on the study dated January 12, 2007, the Secretary responded that the AoA "includes efforts to review the potential use of nuclear propulsion. The AoA is scheduled to be completed this year, and will address the physical possibilities of incorporating a nuclear plant, the cost versus operational effectiveness, the value and need for increased electrical power to allow for future technologies, and impacts to the logistics force."

The Navy's planned 313-ship fleet calls for a total of 19 CG(X)s as of 2007. At that time, the Navy planned to procure the first CG(X) in FY2011 and the second in FY2013. The Navy's FY2008 30-year shipbuilding plan calls for procuring the third CG(X) in FY2014, two per year from FY2015 through FY2021, and the final two CG(X)s in FY2022 and FY2023

When the CG(X) AoA was completed, it was to provide the foundation for the Milestone A decision by Secretary Krieg, initially scheduled in late 2007, thus beginning the Technology Development Phase. By late 2007, Navy plans called for Milestone A review of the CG(X) program in the first quarter of FY2008.

In June 2008, when asked about CG-X requirements, Navy Secretary Donald Winter said "I don't believe they are clear. And I think its requirements at two levels. First we need to make sure we understand what it is we want on this ship and what it is we want in the fleet, how that is all going to work together. This ship is not going to work by itself. It's going to work with other components, as part of ballistic missile defense system [and] many other components. We need to understand how that's all going to work.... I think this is the first time in a long time that we've tried to work it in this formal a process. And to work through a real detailed specification and set of requirements. And that is creating some challenges. And there are tradeoffs that have to be done. And these are more than just worrying about what type of hull form we use - do we use the tumblehome or do we use a more classical one. It's more than just whether it's a nuclear power plant or conventional plant."

When asked whether the Analysis of Alternatives would be completed before the next Adminstration took office in January 2009, Winter said "We'll have to see. I would dearly love to see that happen. I'm not sure I can guarantee that that's going to occur."