With lasers 10X more powerful that current lasers, this ship will need to be closer in size to the Zumwalt Class rather than the Arleigh Burkes. Likely so, since this next gen destroy will use the Zumwalt power plant.
Navy Unveils Next-Generation DDG(X) Warship Concept with Hypersonic Missiles, Lasers
he Navy wants its next warship to fire hypersonic missiles and lasers that would be ten times more powerful than the service’s existing laser weapons, according to the most detailed outlook to date of the DDG(X) next generation warship issued by the service.
The warship, the largest the Navy’s attempted in more than 20 years, is designed to provide the service with the power to drive a new generation of directed energy weapons and high-power sensors that will follow the Navy’s current fleet of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. The warship is estimated to start construction in 2028, the Navy told USNI News last year.
“Capabilities that we’re going to need for the 21st century to continue combating the threat are increased missile capability sensor growth, directed energy weapons, which actually require a lot of power, increased survivability and increased power availability,” deputy program manager Katherine Connelly said at a Wednesday briefing at the Surface Navy Association symposium.
The Navy is developing the DDG(X) using the combat system developed from the Flight III Arleigh Burkes that incorporated the new SPY-6 air search radar and the Baseline 10 Aegis combat system.
“In order to understand DDG(X) and the need for it, you really need to talk about the large surface combatant as a whole,” Connelly said.
“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.”
The ship will trade the traditional gas-turbine propulsion system for one like the Integrated Power System found on the Zumwalt class of guided missile destroyers.