Tomorrow the House Armed Services Committee will vote on a new destroyer for the U.S. Navy. This past Sunday James Zumwalt gave the arguments about a new class of destroyer named for his late father, Chief of Naval Operations Elmo Zumwalt in a long op-ed.

Several data points stuck out. The magazine of the ship is 600 rounds of 155mm shells. They are ‘precision’ weapons - but it didn’t say how so - like laser-designated, etc. The range of the shells is 70nm. Other land attack weapons on the ship were not mentioned (note: the earlier experimental destroyer program only had the 155mm as the single land attack system) .

Zumwalt illustrates the cost trade: “In February, the Navy awarded $1.3 billion shipbuilder contracts to Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works to build two lead ships under the unique acquisition strategy well-supported by Congress. The approximate delivery cost of each ship is $3.2 billion. And, the Navy is confident each of the remaining five DDG-1000s can be delivered for $2.7 billion.

Critics claim these estimates are wishful thinking, calling for the Navy to “can” DDG-1000 and re-start the DDG-51 production line before moving to the next-generation CG(X) guided-missile cruiser. Various estimates indicate one DDG-51 will cost $2.2 billion; two for $3.5 billion. But, these outside estimates may be understated for failing to consider growing shipyard supplier constraints and diminishing manufacturing sources.”(James Zumwalt: When ‘good enough’ is the foe of ‘better’, Washington Times, 27 July 2008)

I don’t know which way the staff will advise the Congressman in the district where I ran to vote. But, I know he doesn’t know what hard questions should be asked about the binary choice above. just either or. How about a different choice? One that will produce a far better defense of the Nation for the $60 billion or so that will spent?

I know the correct political answer is contracts for the Newport News Ship yard and Dahlgren. And, there are other answers that will still provide the ship building to NN and better provide for the Common Defense. I ran to give those answers a voice in Congress.