Article U.S. Navy Seeks Alternate Deckhouse For DDG-1002

[unhappycamper]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_01_25_2013_p03-01-540970.xml&p=1



Artist's rendition of this $5~7 billion dollar wonder of the MIC world

U.S. Navy Seeks Alternate Deckhouse For DDG-1002
By Michael Fabey
January 25, 2013

The U.S. Navy is looking at building an alternative deckhouse for DDG-1002, the final proposed Zumwalt-class destroyer.

The current Zumwalt deckhouse is uniquely designed and constructed of composite materials at a special facility owned and operated by Ingalls Shipbuilding, a Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) unit.

Indeed, the special deckhouse has been one of the main selling points for the Zumwalt, with its specially designed composite construction that the Navy has touted as cutting down on weight and bolstering the ship’s stealth.

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But in a Jan. 3 solicitation, Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) says it “has a potential requirement for design and construction of a steel deckhouse and hangar superstructure, and aft peripheral vertical launching system (PVLS) modules for DDG-1002. This requirement will be solicited without full and open competition … from the only two sources in the Navy’s destroyer shipbuilding industrial base: Bath Iron Works (BIW) … and Ingalls Shipbuilding.”



unhappycamper comment: The DDG-1030 series of stealth destroyers has entered the Design-As-We-Go treadmill, much as has Lockheed's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.