Модернизация АВ типа Нимиц + проблемы с DDX/CGX

The tenth and last of the Nimitz class carriers (CVN 77) will incorporate a lot of long awaited design changes. Although it will look like the other Nimitz carriers, the deck will be longer and wider. This will make it possible to store aircraft on deck without them hanging over the side. This, it was discovered can sometimes confuse the CIWS (Close in Weapons System, a computer controlled 20mm automatic cannon used as a last ditch defense against incoming anti-ship missiles.)

The CVN 77 will have two elevators instead of three. The two elevators have been moved so that they can do the work of three. There are also more fueling stations on deck, so that the fueling crew won't have to drag fuel hoses across the deck so much. The ammunition elevators will also be moved to new locations, which will result in fewer ammo handlers being required, as they won't have to move bombs around as much as before. This "pit stop" approach to fueling and arming will require fewer people on deck, and make it safer for those who are there. The island has been shifted to the rear, and made taller and thinner. The main reason to keep the island at all is to have some place to mount the radars. But the new island will be have no admiral's bridge, just a small sitting room and visitor's bridge from which he can show guests what a carrier is like. The admirals quarters and staff spaces will now be below.

The changes in fueling and arming, and one less elevator, plus greater use of automation on board, will reduce crew size by about 500 sailors. This makes it possible to provide roomier accommodations for the crew. The Navy believes this carrier will be the last with a steam catapult; the next generation is expected to have an electro-magnetic system of some sort. This alone will cut crew size several hundred more. The next class of carriers, the CV(X), will make massive use of automation and more intelligent layout. This is expected to cut crew size from about 5,000 to 3,000. This will allow for even better living conditions, and more space for bombs and aviation fuel. The CV(X) will probably also use a lot of UCAV (unmanned combat aircraft), which will contribute to making the crew size smaller because 25-35 percent of the aircraft won't have crews. The UCAVs are easier to maintain, because there is no gear on board to take care of pilots.





The U.S. Navy's next generation destroyer program is in trouble. The current proposal, DD(X), is expected to cost nearly two billion dollars per ship, and not do much more than the current "Arleigh Burke" class destroyers. There are new technologies on the horizon that make it possible to skip the DD(X) and go for "next generation" ships. This can be done because the U.S. faces no threat on the high seas. With the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy possesses more than half the naval power on the planet, and most of the rest belongs to traditional allies of the United States.

The original justification for the DD(X) was the installation of more cruise missiles (over a hundred) and one or two highly accurate 155mm guns that could support troops ashore. The gun have a range of over 150 kilometers and use high tech (GPS guided or cluster bomb) shells. The long range 155mm gun is another idea whose time has passed. Naval gunfire in support of troops ashore has not been seen much in the past few decades, and, again, the smart bombs are much preferred. This puts in question one of the reasons for the large size of the DD(X); providing enough space and energy for rail gun designs that are in the works. But the rail gun has the same problem as conventional guns; is there really a need for it. Although the rail gun can fire armor penetrating, guided, tungsten rods nearly 400 kilometers, there has not been much need for this sort of capability over the past half century.

Eventually it became obvious that more cruise missiles on ships was not a cost-effective proposition. Each missile costs at least half a million dollars, and it's much cheaper, and useful, to use GPS guided bombs dropped by carrier aircraft. Cruise missiles can't fly around for hours waiting for the ground troops to call for a smart bomb, and this sort of "bombs on demand" has become a key factor in the proven new style of ground combat. Current warships already carry thousands of cruise missiles, and there simply isn't a loud cry for still more.

Another innovations of the DD(X), a smaller crew (125 versus nearly 400 with current destroyers) is to be a standard feature of all new ships. This will be done by using the kinds of automation and low maintenance design common on commercial ships for decades.

Even the CG(X), to be built on the same hull as the DD(X), is in danger. The CG(X) is intended mainly to defend the carrier from submarines and aircraft. But there are new ideas for ships that can do that, including smaller carrier carrying helicopters and small, robotic, ships, aircraft and submarines that would be more effective in hunting enemy subs and defeating incoming aircraft and missiles. Thus the quiet (so far) battle within the navy over what future ships to build. There is no rush, and the gives the visionaries an opportunity to possibly kill the DD(X) and CG(X) and go for a truly revolutionary class of escort ships for the carriers.