Military.com News:
The Navy is evaluating whether to mount its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun weapon aboard the high-tech DDG 1000 destroyer by the mid-2020s, service officials said.
The DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System provides a large amount of on board electricity sufficient to accommodate the weapon, Capt. Mike Ziv, Program Manager for Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems, told reporters at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea Air Space symposium at National Harbor, Md.
The first of three planned DDG 1000 destroyers was christened in April of last year.
Ziv said Navy leaders believe the DDG 1000 is the right ship to house the rail gun but that additional study was necessary to examine the risks. A rigorous study on the issue should be finished by the end of this year, Ziv said.
“I think it’s an ideal platform. There is a little bit more work needed to understand the details,” he added.
The DDG 1000 is 65-percent larger than existing 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers with a displacement of 15,482 tons,.
The DDG 1000’s integrated power system, which includes its electric propulsion, helps generate up to 58 megawatts of on-board electrical power, something seen as key to the future when it comes to the possibility of firing a rail gun.
It is also possible that the weapon could someday be configured to fire from DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
“We’ve looked at ships as small as DDG 51s. It takes something of that size. This isn’t something you are going to put on an LCS,” Ziv added.
