DDG 1000's composite deckhouse was revealed this week down in
Gulfport. The uniquely angled 48.8m long, by 21.3m wide, by 19.8m high balsa-wood core carbon fiber super-structure
is designed to provide the Navy's newest guided-missile destroyer a low
radar and infrared signature. The deckhouse, combined with
a low-profile tumblehome hull will likely achieve this goal, but is it
truly fair to say that this design is "stealthy?" Today's enemies will
not operate long range maritime patrol aircraft and radar satellites
like the Soviet Union did to locate U.S. fleets on the open ocean 30
years ago. They will, however, use a network of tattletale fishing
dhows equipped with satellite phones, cheap tactical UAVs,
and HUMINT networks in nearby logistics ports with twitter accounts and
smart phones to find ships operating in narrow seas such as the Arabian
Gulf. A singulary-unique profile 14,000 ton combatant is not likely to
be able to hide from these intelligence platforms, no matter how
innovative her design may be. One hopes that the three staggeringly
expensive DDG-1000 destroyers will validate many new naval technologies,
but how to hide a ship in the littorals during 21st Century irregular
warfare will not likely be one of them.
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