https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated December 21, 2022
Navy DDG(X) Next-Generation Destroyer Program:
Background and Issues for Congress
Introduction
The Navy’s DDG(X) program envisages procuring a class
of next-generation guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) to
replace the Navy’s Ticonderoga (CG-47) class Aegis
cruisers and older Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class Aegis
destroyers. The Navy wants to procure the first DDG(X) in
FY2030. The Navy’s proposed FY2023 budget requests
$195.5 million in research and development funding for the
program.
Navy Large Surface Combatants (LSCs)
Force-Level Goal
The Navy refers to its cruisers and destroyers collectively
as large surface combatants (LSCs).The Navy’s current
355-ship force-level goal, released in December 2016, calls
for achieving and maintaining a force of 104 LSCs. The
Navy’s FY2023 30-year (FY2023-FY2052) shipbuilding
plan, released on April 20, 2022, summarizes Navy and
OSD studies outlining potential successor Navy force-level
goals that include 63 to 96 LSCs.
Existing LSCs
The Navy’s CG-47s and DDG-51s are commonly called
Aegis cruisers and destroyers because they are equipped
with the Aegis combat system, an integrated collection of
sensors and weapons named for the mythical shield that
defended Zeus. The Navy procured 27 CG-47s between
FY1978 and FY1988. The ships entered service between
1983 and 1994. The first five, which were built to an earlier
technical standard, were judged by the Navy to be too
expensive to modernize and were removed from service in
2004-2005. Of the remaining 22 ships, the Navy’s FY2023
budget submission proposes retiring 17 in FY2023-
FY2027, and the final 5 after FY2027.
The first DDG-51 was procured in FY1985 and entered
service in 1991. The version of the DDG-51 that the Navy
is currently procuring is called the Flight III version. The
Navy also has three Zumwalt (DDG-1000) class destroyers
that were procured in FY2007-FY2009 and are equipped
with a combat system that is different than the Aegis
system. (For more on the DDG-51 and DDG-1000
programs, see CRS Report RL32109, Navy DDG-51 and
DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs: Background and Issues
for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke.)
LSC Industrial Base
All LSCs procured for the Navy since FY1985 have been
built at General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works (GD/BIW) of
Bath, ME, and Huntington Ingalls Industries/Ingalls
Shipbuilding (HII/Ingalls) of Pascagoula, MS. Lockheed
Martin and Raytheon are major contractors for Navy
surface ship combat system equipment. The surface
combatant industrial base also includes hundreds of
additional component and material supplier firms.
DDG(X) Program
Program Designation and Lead Ship Procurement
In the program designation DDG(X), the X means the
precise design for the ship has not yet been determined. As
mentioned earlier, the Navy wants to procure the first
DDG(X) in FY2030, though the date for procuring the first
ship has changed before and could change again.
Procurement of DDG-51s—the type of LSC currently being
procured by the Navy—would end sometime after
procurement of DDG(X)s begins.
Navy’s General Concept for the Ship
Figure 1 shows a Navy rendering of a notional DDG(X)
design concept. The Navy approved the DDG(X)’s top-
level requirements (i.e., its major required features) in
December 2020. A November 2022 Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) report on the Navy’s FY2023 30-year
shipbuilding plan states that “the Navy has indicated that
the initial [DDG(X)] design prescribes a displacement of
13,500 tons,” which would be about 39% greater than the
9,700-ton Flight III DDG-51 design.
Figure 1. Navy Rendering of Notional DDG(X) Design
Source: Slide 5 from briefing on DDG(X) program by Captain David
Hart, DDG(X) Program Manager, January 12, 2022, presented at
Surface Navy Association annual symposium.
The Navy envisages the DDG(X) as having (1) Flight III
DDG-51 Aegis combat system elements; (2) more growth
margin than the Flight III DDG-51 design, meaning more
space, weight-carrying capacity, electrical power, and
