SC-21 (United States) - Cancellation

Cancellation

The winner of the competition to design the DD-21 was due to be announced in March 2001, but the decision was put back twice as the new Bush administration reviewed defense spending. On March 1 it was announced that the decision would be made in May, and on May 31 it was announced that the Navy would wait for the results of the Quadrennial Defense Review, and a future shipbuilding review. After the House Appropriations Committee proposed a reduction in the DD-21 allocation in the FY2002 budget in late October 2001, on 1 November the Navy announced a less ambitious Future Surface Combatant program (FSC). Polmar claims that DD-21 was terminated primarily for political reasons as the program was closely identified with the Clinton administration, whereas Work views it as the culmination of a debate within the Navy about whether they should use in the littoral zone large capable ships like the DD-21 or more numerous smaller ships like the "Streetfighter" concept. It did not help that the original plan called for the fifth ship to cost $750 m in FY96 dollars, but in the fourth quarter of 1999 alone the program cost went up from $3.2bn to $5.2bn.

Streetfighter evolved into the Littoral Combat Ship; under FSC the DD-21 became the DD(X) which would become the Zumwalt class destroyer, whilst the preliminary plans for CG-21 would be folded into the CG(X) ballistic missile defense cruiser.

The hull of the Zumwalt class is similar to that of the DD-21, but the new design displaces 14,564 tons and unlike the DD-21, the deckhouse is flush to the sides of the hull. The central "block" of VLS cells is replaced by a peripheral VLS of 80 cells, which allows both guns to be located forward of the deckhouse. This in turn allows the stern to be given over to helicopter facilities but means that the automated magazine can only contain 750 rounds, supplemented by an auxiliary store.