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Archives by date > 2007 > April > 12th

Defense News: Will DDG-1000 Destroyers Be Unstable?

Apr 12, 2007 08:54 UTC

DDG-1000 ship Head-On

DD (X) tumblehome hull

The military is by nature a conservative community. Given the cost in lives inherent in betting on the wrong new trend, this should hardly be surprising. Sometimes, that traditionalist streak gets in the way of progress, as was the case with radical ideas like the aircraft carrier. Sometimes, the skepticism is justified. Defense News looks at the $3+ billion per ship DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class, which is likely to serve as a design template for future cruiser classes (CG-X, 19 ships from 2011) and possibly even a frigate class (FFG-X, featured in CBO reports but no firm plans), asking: “Is New U.S. Destroyer Unstable?” Are the critics prisoners of their preconceptions re: what ships are “supposed” to look like, or sounding an early alarm before a very expensive ship and its crew are lost to Mother Nature rather than enemy fire? Defense News:

“Nothing like the Zumwalt has ever been built. The 14,500-ton ship’s flat, inward-sloping sides and superstructure rise in pyramidal fashion in a form called tumblehome. Its long, angular “wave-piercing” bow lacks the rising, flared profile of most ships, and is intended to slice through waves as much as ride over them…”

“At least eight current and former officers, naval engineers and architects and naval analysts interviewed for this article expressed concerns about the ship’s stability. Ken Brower, a civilian naval architect with decades of naval experience was even more blunt: “It will capsize in a following sea at the wrong speed if a wave at an appropriate wavelength hits it at an appropriate angle”… “

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FALCON Project HTV Update

Apr 12, 2007 05:16 UTC

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Falcon HTV concept

DID has updated its article on the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, also known as the Common Air Vehicle, in order to reflect recent progress and a contract award.

HTV-1 is part of DARPA’s larger FALCON (Force Application and Launch from Continental US) program that includes the HTV, and also the Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) program for cheap, responsive rocket launches. AirLaunch LLC’s innovative QuickReach C-17 based launch technology is part of the SLV program, as is SpaceX’s Falcon I rocket. The joint US-Australian HIFiRE hypersonic research program is not directly part of this program, but some of its innovations and/or test data are expected to be useful.

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