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Summary:
The Navy is currently developing technologies and studying design options for a planned new cruiser called the CG(X). Navy plans call for procuring the first CG(X) in FY2011, at an estimated cost of about $3.2 billion, and 18 more CG(X)s in subsequent years. If the CG(X) is equipped with a nuclear power plant, which is an option currently being considered by the Navy, then advance procurement funding for the first CG(X) could appear in the FY2009 Navy budget to be submitted to Congress in early 2008. The Navy requested $118 million in FY2008 research and development funding for the CG(X) program. The Navy is pursuing the CG(X) program in a context that includes concerns about the affordability of the Navy's shipbuilding program, the emergence of the Navy's new ballistic missile defense (BMD) mission, interest on the House Armed Services Committee in having the CG(X) be nuclear-powered, and concerns for the surface combatant industrial base. The 19 planned CG(X)s are intended to replace the Navy's 22 existing Ticonderoga (CG-47) class Aegis cruisers. The Navy wants the CG(X) to be a highly capable multi-mission ship with an emphasis on air defense and ballistic missile defense (BMD). The Navy is currently assessing CG(X) design options, including the option of nuclear power, in a study called the CG(X) Analysis of Alternatives (AOA) that is to be completed by the end of 2007. Although the CG(X) AOA is examining a range of design options for the CG(X), the Navy has publicly stated that it prefers a CG(X) design based on the conventionally powered DDG-1000 destroyer hull design. On July 23, 2007, it was reported in the defense trade press that analysts conducting the CG(X) AOA are considering dividing the CG(X) program into two groups of ships -- 14 smaller, conventionally powered CG(X)s based on the 14,500-ton DDG-1000 hull design, and 5 larger, nuclear-powered CG(X)s, displacing 23,000 tons to 25,000 tons each. The CG(X) raises several potential oversight issues for Congress, including the balance in the CG(X) design between unit affordability and unit capability; the accuracy of the Navy's cost estimate for the CG(X); technical risk in the CG(X) program; whether some or all CG(X)s should be nuclear-powered; what kind of hull design the CG(X) should use; the potential impact of the BMD mission on the number of CG(X)s to be procured and the schedule for procuring them; the industrial-base implications of the CG(X) program; and whether the sharedproduction arrangement for the DDG-1000 should be extended into the CG(X) program. Congress has several near-term and longer-term options for the CG(X) program. This report will be updated as events warrant.
