The Greatest Battleship In History

Of all the revelations that came from Thursday's House Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee hearing, we particularly enjoyed how the Navy made a great case for the modern rating system for surface combatants used on this blog. In our opinion, the confusion reveals that we tend to be more consistent than the Navy's own classification system labeling ship types. John McCain once said he had never heard of a 14,000 ton destroyer. Neither have we, and a DDG that can't use Standard missiles sounds equally ridiculous.

For all the folks who are new, this blog has adopted a "solemn, universal and unalterable" classification for rating warships in the spirit of Samuel Pepys, who as Secretary to the Admiralty created a ship rating system in 1677 for administrative and military use within the Royal Navy. We note Pepys's classification system was updated many times, including in 1817, a full 140 years after it was developed. A few years ago we observed a modern rating system used by Bob Work, and with his permission, we have adopted it for use on the blog.

Our modern rating system, as Samuel Pepys rating system did as far back as the 17th century, rates a warship by its primary weapon system. In the modern era, the primary weapon system is the guided missile. Just as many modified Samuel Pepys rating system in his era, we have slightly modified Bob Work's rating system in our era, specifically by recognizing that not all ships are rated.

The Arleigh Burke class has either 92 or 96 VLS cells, depending upon which Flight the ship is. According to our rating system, ships armed with 90-99 battle force VLS cells, and/or 90-99 battle force missiles are rated as second class battleships. To classify the Arleigh Burke class as a second rate battleship in comparison to the rest of the world Navy's is not a stretch, indeed there are only 4 classes and 10 total warships outside the United States that are even in the same class or higher as the Arleigh Burke class. Those ten ships are of the 4 ships of the Japanese Kongo class, 2 ships of the Japanese Atago class, the 3 planned ships of the South Korean King Sejong the Great class, and one active Russian Kirov class.

The 62 Arleigh Burke class battleships, 53 of which have already been commissioned, represent one of the greatest surface combatant classes in naval history, and certainly one of the top few in US history. To put the Arleigh Burke class into perspective, if the Navy builds 8 more as is currently being discussed, DDG-113 commissioned around 2015 would be expected to serve in the US Navy until 2050 to meet its 35 year life, meaning the entire Arleigh Burke class would be expected to span at least 60 years of service in the US Navy. That would be longer than the Iowa class battleships that served in WWII and fought in Gulf War I.

I wanted to write this post today as sort of a bridge, or interlude if you will. While we fully support the Navy's decision to cancel the DDG-1000, and have long before revelations made last Thursday, we will not hide that we are not impressed with the decision by the Navy to build more Arleigh Burke class battleships.. This has nothing to do with the ship itself, the Arleigh Burke class is absolutely the best ship in the world today. Our criticism is instead rooted in strategy, we do not believe the best way to prepare the next generation of naval warfare is to turn back and build the ship best designed to win the war of the last generation. The 21st century is here, it is time to embrace both the changes and challenges of this century. While taking the best the last century has to offer is certainly a safe bet, we wonder if by 2035, when the ship is barely 20 years old, if she will be obsolete to meet the challenges of that era of naval warfare.

After all, the USS Ticonderoga (CG 47), ordered in 1978, commissioned in 1983, and decommissioned in 2004 after only 21 years may soon be turned into a museum. While she served strong for 21.7 years, her sister ships are expected to serve 40 years, and she would still be serving an additional 15 years from right now had she not been made obsolete by the evolutions in technology.