Navy has high hopes for new warship's guns

Since 08-16-05

Web-Master's comment:  where is the anti-submarine weaponry?

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Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 5:21 AM
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Subject: Navy has high hopes for new warship's guns

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/08/16/100wir_navy001.cfm

Navy has high hopes for new warship's guns

By John J. Lumpkin
Associated Press
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Navy, seeking a greater role as the United States wages wars far inland, is pushing an expensive, experimental destroyer it says will be able to shell targets well away from shore. The Navy is trying to improve its ability to conduct fire support, using heavy guns to assist Marines or soldiers ashore, much like land-based artillery does. The frequency of such naval fire support missions have declined during conflicts of the last half-century, and the Navy has turned to expensive cruise missiles instead of guns to hit targets farther inland. Learn more about the Navy's proposed DD(X) destroyer online at:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/dd-x-design.htm

The proposed destroyer, called the DD(X), would fill a gap opened with the removal from service of the last battleships more than a decade ago, Navy officials contend. The first DD(X) is projected to cost $3.3 billion, but sister ships would be cheaper, the Navy says. Since 2004, however, the Navy's estimated costs per ship have gone up almost 50 percent for ships built after the first of their class, the Congressional Research Service says.

One proposal before Congress would cap the price per ship at $1.7 billion, forcing the Navy to redesign the DD(X) to something smaller and probably less capable. The Navy also has reduced the number it wants to buy, from between 16 to 24 down to between eight and 12.Current cruisers and destroyers mount only 5-inch guns with a range of about 15 miles.

The guns of the USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin can hit targets 30 miles distant with unguided shells carrying 1,900 pounds of high explosives. The Navy says the guns of the DD(X) would carry two 155-millimeter guns that fire rocket-propelled rounds. Current test versions of the gun have hit targets 68 miles away.

The Navy hopes to reach 96 miles.Navy officials also talk about an electromagnetic rail gun, possibly available by 2020, that could hit targets 350 miles away. Where the battleships fire unguided shells and destroy targets though massed firepower, rounds from the guns of the DD(X) will be guided by satellite positioning data, like many modern aircraft bombs and missiles, and be far more precise.

The first DD(X) isn't expected to join the fleet until 2013 or so, presuming it continues to receive funding. The Navy also is working on a rocket-propelled shell for its current warships, but that is unlikely to be ready until 2010.The ship will also carry at least one helicopter, unpiloted drones, small guns to fight off attacks by small boats, and surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.  
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)