The Navy is going to increase the manpower on the first of a new class of land attack destroyers known as the Zumwalt-class DDG-1000s to account for greater need in propulsion plant engineering and information technology networks, the service’s program manager said Tuesday.
Capt. Jim Downey said the number of sailors on the ship will now “max out” at 175, a figure that includes a helicopter crew and a baseline crew of 147, an increase of 17 over the previously revised figure of 130. Several years ago the Navy envisioned a baseline crew of 114, he said at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium just outside Washington.
The Navy has been re-evaluating the manning size for the first of the class, the future USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). Capt. James Kirk, slated to become the first commanding officer of the ship, told Defense Daily in August the service was contemplating an increase in manpower.
Downey said the decision was based on observations made with the manpower on other new ship classes, namely the Littoral Combat Ship. The LCS, like the DDG-1000 class, was billed as a ship that would require relatively low manning levels through greater use of automation, but also ended up with increases to the number of sailors needed to operate the ship.
Downey noted that it was a better option to start with the higher levels of sailors that could be gradually decreased if the Navy determines fewer are needed, than to start lower and have to later go looking for additional help. He also pointed out that the Zumwalts are twice the size of the Navy’s other fleet of Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers, but even with the newly upped figure, require half the manning.
The Navy is in the process of building the three planned Zumwalt ships, the largest vessels ever built to be labeled destroyers, with prime contractor General Dynamics [GD] Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine. Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] is producing the composite deckhouses for the first two ships. Raytheon [RTN] is the integrator for the vessel’s systems and BAE Systems is supplying the powerful Advanced Gun System. The Navy opted for a steel deckhouse for the third ship that is being built by General Dynamics.
The first ship is 94 percent complete and is set to go to sea later this year for trials. The second vessel, the future USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), is more than 80 percent complete and scheduled for delivery next year, while the third, the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), is more than 25 percent complete and slated to arrive in 2018.
The DDG-1000 program was borne out of the Navy’s DD-21 program, which was canceled 14 years ago and became the DD(X) program largely to preserve many of the technologies planned for the DD-21 that are now being incorporated onto the Zumwalts, including more automation to reduce manpower and, perhaps its most notable future, electric drive. Electric drive effectively centralizes all of the ship’s power, allowing operators to redistribute power to meet needs around the ship as needed, including to and from the engines.
The Navy originally planned to buy 10 DDG-1000s, but slashed that number in 2010 to three because of cost considerations.