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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY98 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The Twenty First Century Destroyer (DD 21) is the first in a family of Twenty First Century Surface Combatants (SC 21) and is envisioned to provide independent forward presence/deterrence and operate as an integral part of Naval, Joint and Combined maritime forces. Tailored for land attack,

DD 21's mission is to carry the war to the enemy through offensive operations. It enables precision engagement by conducting littoral operations that include the launch and support of precision strike weapons and firepower support for amphibious and other ground forces. DD 21 also provides full-dimensional protection from enemy attack to friendly forces through the establishment and maintenance of surface/subsurface superiority and local air defense. Signature reduction is to be incorporated into the DD 21 design, allowing it to operate in all threat environments. DD 21 is the numerical replacement for retiring SPRUANCE (DD 963) Class destroyers and OLIVER HAZARD PERRY (FFG 7) Class frigates, which will reach their end of service life during the 2005-2007 timeframe.

DD 21 is a Major Defense Acquisition Program, and successfully completed its Milestone I in early FY98. During Phase I of the DD 21 acquisition, two competing teams will perform requirements analyses and trade studies, and develop two competitive DD 21 system concept designs. The acquisition strategy also requires operational test planning to evolve concurrently with the DD 21 ship/system design. IOT&E of DD 21 will consist of a series of EOAs, beginning in FY99, to support a Milestone II decision. A series of OAs and an OPEVAL are planned to support Milestone III. FOT&E will be conducted to verify correction of deficiencies and complete deferred or incomplete OT&E. OT&E will be combined with or conducted concurrently with DT as practical and appropriate.

The Navy's LFT&E program for DD-21 will use a combination of surrogate tests, component and system tests, a Shock Trial, a Total Ship Survivability Trial, and modeling and simulation to assess the vulnerability of DD-21 to threats likely encountered during combat. The modeling and simulation effort will draw on the results of the various tests, as well as previous combat incidents, to assess the vulnerability of the DD-21 Class ship in damage scenarios reflecting realistic threat encounters. The Navy will develop a series of Vulnerability Assessment Reports keyed to the various stages of ship design and construction to report the results of their LFT&E effort.

DOT&E approved the DD 21 TEMP in early FY98 prior to the Milestone I decision. IOT&E activities proceeded during FY98 even though there was a delay in contracting for the Phase I program. During this period, DOT&E has continued to actively participate in the program's WIPTs. Program immaturity has limited test planning to the identification of probable operational issues and test events and objectives that support an evaluation of the DD-21's operational effectiveness and suitability. Additionally, the TEMP mandates appropriate updates as down-selects occur and the program matures.

DOT&E actively participated with the Navy in the development of the program's LFT&E Management Plan, which DOT&E approved in late FY98. DOT&E reviewed the test plan and observed the Advanced Threat Weapons Effects demonstration conducted against the ex-R.K. TURNER (CG 20).

The T&E integrated test program (IPT) for DD 21 has been very effective, and with DOT&E's early involvement has provided a solid framework for EOAs and testing. DD-21's acquisition strategy and ITP schedule provide a good opportunity for "testing for learning" during the program definition and risk reduction phase. To facilitate such learning and support the preparation of a TEMP revision, DOT&E and OPTEVFOR will participate in the engineering reviews of various industry proposals and monitor the progress of potentially related advanced technology demonstrations.

There were significant lessons learned from the CG 20 demonstration. Most important, the damage observed far exceeded the damage predicted. The unpredictability of damage, particularly synergistic damage mechanisms, is clearly beyond the capabilities of modeling & simulation today, nor can it be replicated in land-based arena tests. This further underscores the need to take advantage of every opportunity available to test threat weapons against realistically configured surrogate ships at sea. Program plans for other LFT&E surrogate testing efforts remain tentative while they wait for competing industry teams to develop concepts.