US Navy, 25,000-ton cruiser under consideration

[Happy Times]

Under pressure from the Navy to develop a new cruiser based on the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class hull form, and from Congress to incorporate nuclear power, a group of analysts working on the next big surface combatant may recommend two different ships to form the CG(X) program.

One ship would be a 14,000-ton derivative of the DDG 1000, an “escort cruiser,” to protect aircraft carrier strike groups. The vessel would keep the tumblehome hull of the DDG 1000 and its gas turbine power plant.

The other new cruiser would be a much larger, 25,000-ton nuclear-powered ship with a more conventional flared bow, optimized for the ballistic missile defense (BMD) mission.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/0...se_cgx_070723/

[baggygreen]

wow...

[JSLTIGER]

Good for the Navy...I was starting to wonder what the heck we were going to do about replacing the Ticonderogas.

[DAB]

I wonder whether the 25,000ton ship is perhaps too big. The only reason you would a platform that big would be 1) Battleship Guns, 2) A through deck cruiser design that allows you to operate aircraft: EG: British Invincible Class (21,000tons)

I don't see any indication that she is being designed for either weapon. And surely one or two giant ships for ballistic missile defence would leave the US in an exceptionally precarious position should one get torpedoed.

[fatty]

The Virginia CGN displaced ~11,000 tons. Add two VLS grids for BMD and modern AAW, assume she will carry two helos, then figure fuel and other misc. logistical factors, extra crew... it adds up quite quickly!

[geetrue]

I say scrap it and build the submarines that would or could sink it someday, but I know how the high brass thinks and it's not pro-submarine's.

Did you see the price tag on this thing?

I think it was one billion dollars for the nuclear power plant alone, plus another seven (7) billion dollars to finish it and they want more than one.