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DDG-51 Arleigh Burke - Service Life Extension
The Secretary of the Navy's fiscal year 2008 report to Congress on the long-range plan for construction of naval vessels identified the requirement to extend the service life of the DDG-51 class to 40 years in order to meet surface combatant force structure requirements. However, additional planning and funding to accomplish this extended service life is not included in the budget request. The 2008 Navy report to Congress on DDG modernization indicated that the Navy staff had reviewed a concept that would achieve favorable results for each of the program attributes outlined in the report. The Navy report identified using the multi-ship, multi-option (MSMO) contracts as the preferred approach for conducting the DDG modernization. The MSMO contracts are contracts for maintenance efforts on Navy ships that are conducted in the ships' homeport area.
By mid-2008 the Senate Armed Services Committee viewed the Navy's plan to operate the DDG-51 class for a full 40 years to be very high risk, based on recent history of 20-25 year service life for surface combatants [however, these were early retirements done to make way for newly built DDG-51s]. Additional fiscal year 2009 DDG-51 modernization procurement funding would support critical planning, engineering, and procurement activities for service life extension alterations. The committee recommends an increase of $25.0 million in OPN for the DDG-51 modernization program.
It was not apparent to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy had seriously evaluated conducting the modernization program at the shipyards where the DDG-51s were built, or a so-called `building yard' approach. Further, upon reviewing the Navy's basis for determining that MSMO contracts would be more suitable for executing the DDG modernization program, the committee cannot find that the Navy has established measures of effectiveness and appropriate cost control mechanisms to maximize the benefits promised by MSMO contract maintenance strategies. The magnitude of this investment, coupled with the critical need for this modernization effort, warranted a thorough assessment of the considerations leading to the Navy's selection of an acquisition strategy.
Accordingly, the Senate Armed Services Committee directed the Secretary of the Navy to submit a DDG-51 modernization acquisition strategy report to the congressional defense committees with the fiscal year 2010 budget request. The report should include a plan to execute a pilot project that would accomplish the full scope of DDG-51 hull, mechanical and electrical, and combat system maintenance and modernization in a single availability executed at one of the building yards. Such plan shall include a detailed quantitative and qualitative assessment of each of the acquisition strategy and availability execution considerations addressed by the Navy's 2008 report on DDG modernization. The report shall also provide a quantitative and qualitative comparison of this building yard plan with the Navy's plan to execute DDG modernization within a MSMO contract framework.
Vice Adm. Bill Merz, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems said on 12 April 2018 that the Navy would extending the life of the entire class, keeping every one of its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in service for 45 years. The move would allow the Navy to reach a 355-ship fleet by 2036 or 2037. A 45-year service life equates to an extension of five to 10 years each, depending on the flight.
In Navy nnounced 02 August 2023 that the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Surface Warfare Division (N96) had approved the service life extension of four Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers. USS Ramage (DDG 61), homeported in Norfolk, VA, and USS Benfold (DDG 65), based in Yokosuka, Japan, have been extended by five years to FY 2035 and FY 2036, respectively. USS Mitscher (DDG 57), also homeported in Norfolk, and USS Milius (DDG 69), homeported out of Yokosuka, have been extended by four years to FY 2034 and FY 2035, respectively.
These extensions followed the March 2023 extension of USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) by five years through FY 2031.The extension puts each destroyer beyong their estimated service life of 35 years.
“These service life extensions demonstrate the Navy’s commitment to ensuring the surface fleet has the right capability and capacity,” said Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, director of Surface Warfare (N96) “Adding 23-years of service life cumulatively over the last six months is a significant investment in surface warfare. These extensions align to Secretary of the Navy Del Toro’s commitment to Congress during the FY-24 posture hearings to analyze service life on a hull-by-hull basis and extend the correct ships in order to be good stewards of resources invested in the U.S. Navy by the American people.”
Each of these ships have received Aegis baseline nine upgrades through the DDG Modernization program. The program provided a comprehensive mid-life modernization to these destroyers, ensuring they have the right systems to remain capable and reliable to the end of their service life. Based on analysis by the Navy’s technical community, these extensions were feasible because each ship properly adhered to lifecycle maintenance plans and were well maintained in good material condition by their crews.
“These DDGs bring the right capability and capacity to our operational commanders in an affordable manner maximizing the Navy’s targeted return on investment for these ships,” Pyle added. “Each of these extensions takes into account where these ships are in their lifecycle maintenance schedules. Extending Mitscher and Milius by an additional year to five years would require each ship to spend a year of that extension in a docking availability, which would not be a prudent use of resources entrusted to the Navy.”
The surface community would continue to evaluate the service life of each surface ship based on combat relevance, reliability data, and material condition. Currently, the Navy had 73 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in service and was continuing to modernize the class with the latest technologies and capabilities.
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