DDG(X): The Navy’s New Warship Armed With Lasers And Hypersonic Missiles?

[Boats]

DDG(X): The U.S. Navy’s New Warship Armed With Lasers And Hypersonic Missiles?
By: Starvos Atlamazoglou - 1945 News - 04-18-22 15-sec. ago
Re: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/04/...onic-missiles/

Photo link: https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-conte...0299936536.jpg
A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific. The SM-3 Block 1B successfully intercepted a target missile that had been launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands in Kauai, Hawaii. Lake Erie detected and tracked the target with its on board AN/SPY-1 radar. The event was the third consecutive successful intercept test of the SM-3 Block IB missile. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

The US Navy has quite a few naval challenges from nations like Russia and China but also rogue states like Iran and North Korea. A new warship armed with lots of lasers and hypersonic missiles could be created to handle those threats: A few months back, the U.S. Navy came out with more details on its new surface warship and the weapons it wants to put on it. Hypersonic missiles, lasers, and advanced sensors are just some of the new systems and features the Navy wants for the fleet of new warships.

According to a report by the United States Naval Institute News, the Navy is getting closer to the final product for the DDG(X) Next Generation Warship.

Envisioned to be “lethal, affordable, upgradable, and sustainable,” the DDG(X) is designed as the ultimate testing ground for a new generation of weapons systems and sensors that if are found to effective, they could proliferate in the fleet and replace legacy systems found today on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.

“In order to understand DDG(X) and the need for it, you really need to talk about the large surface combatant as a whole. Flight III is going to be in the fleet through the [2060s]. So, the threat is going to continue to evolve. And there will be new threats out there. We on the Navy side will continue to evolve our combat and other capabilities to deter the threat. And we will need a platform that can accommodate those new technologies,” Katherine Connelly, the deputy program manager of the DDG(X) Next Generation Ship, said during a briefing at the Surface Navy Association symposium, according to the USNI.

The first DDG(X) is set to start construction in 2028. The Navy plans to replace both its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and Ticonderoga-class missile-guided cruisers.

The Navy is looking for capabilities that are going to be needed on the battlefield of the 21st century, such as increased missile capability sensor growth, directed energy weapons, increased survivability, and increased power availability, Navy officials said. But new frontiers present new challenges. For example, directed energy weapons, or lasers, require a lot of power to operate and sustain. A way to solve that problem would be to make the weapons more efficient so that they require less power. Another way would be to increase the power output on warships by installing nuclear reactors. Which path the Navy takes is still unknown.

“The first ship will focus on a new hull form and a new integrated power system. We will use the proven combat system from the Flight III ship so we are designing the ship with the flexibility and the margins to accommodate the future of the Navy and the needs for where we’re going,” Connelly added.

DDG(X) Faster and Farther

Besides the new advanced weaponry and sensors, it wants to put on the DDG(X) warships, the Navy wants them to be faster and more effective than ever.

According to the new information, the new warship should be able to travel 50 percent farther and remain in station 120 times longer. To achieve that, the Navy is seeking to cut fuel usage by 25 percent compared to its current fleet of destroyers. As far as operational environments, the Navy is looking to build a vessel that would be as effective in the arctic and open ocean as it would be in littoral and tropic waters.

About this writer: 1945’s New Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.
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Personal note: Offense weapons are great - as long as the ships have incoming
counter-measures to stave off being hit or sunk. I'm not sure how much defensive
measures we have for incoming super-sonic missiles.
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It seems we still lack the resources to counter the newest and most deadly
super-sonic missiles. It would be shame to see our vessels sunk with our
men on board. Offensive we seem to be ok - but it's the our Defensive weapons
I worry about - and do they have the high speed and accuracy to counter these
incoming super-sonic missles - to stay afloat with their ships and men?