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Summary

The Navy is currently developing technologies and studying design options for a planned new cruiser called the CG(X). The Navy wants to procure CG(X)s as replacements for its 22 Ticonderoga (CG-47) class Aegis cruisers, which are projected to reach their retirement age of 35 years between 2021 and 2029. The Navy wants CG(X)s to be highly capable ships, particularly in the areas of anti-air warfare (AAW) and ballistic missile defense (BMD). The Navy's FY2009 budget called for procuring the first CG(X) in FY2011. Beginning in late-2008, however, it was reported that the Navy had decided to defer the procurement of the first CG(X) by several years, to about FY2017. Consistent with these press reports, on April 6, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced--as part of a series of decisions concerning the Department of Defense's (DOD's) proposed FY2010 defense budget--a decision to "delay the CG-X next generation cruiser program to revisit both the requirements and acquisition strategy" for the program. The Navy's proposed FY2010 budget defers procurement of the first CG(X) beyond FY2015 and requests $340 million in research and development funding for the CG(X) program. Under the FY2009 budget, the Navy planned to procure 19 CG(X)s. In February 2009, however, it was reported that the Navy was considering reducing the planned total of CG(X)s to eight. The Navy has not yet announced a preferred design concept for the CG(X). The Navy originally intended to use the design of its new DDG-1000 destroyer as the basis for the CG(X) design, but this no longer appears to be the Navy's preferred approach. Section 1012 of the FY2008 defense authorization act (H.R. 4986/P.L. 110-181 of January 28, 2008) makes it U.S. policy to construct the major combatant ships of the Navy, including the CG(X), with integrated nuclear power systems, unless the Secretary of Defense submits a notification to Congress that the inclusion of an integrated nuclear power system is not in the national interest. The Navy has studied nuclear power as a design option for the CG(X), but has not yet announced whether it would prefer to build the CG(X) as a nuclear-powered ship. The February 2009 press report about the Navy possibly reducing the CG(X) program to eight ships also stated that the Navy was considering procuring those eight ships at a rate of one ship every three years. Such a procurement profile might be consistent with the idea of building the CG(X) as a large, nuclear-powered ship with a displacement in the general range of about 20,000 tons (compared, for example, to about 9,500 tons for the Navy's Aegis cruisers). The Navy reportedly has studied such a design for the CG(X), and the relatively high potential procurement cost of such a ship might be a reason for procuring it at a rate of one ship every three years, rather than at a more rapid rate. The conference report (H.Rept. 111-288 of October 7, 2009) on the FY2010 defense authorization bill (H.R. 2647) includes a provision (Section 125) that prohibits the obligation and expenditure of funds for the construction or advanced procurement of materials for surface combatants (including cruisers) procured after FY2011 until certain conditions are met, and requires DOD to submit certain reports.

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