The Navy’s recent decision to drop the DDG-1000 program and restart the DDG-51 program harkens back to something we talked about on these pages last year. We recommended the Navy do exactly that, as the DDG-1000 is not the vessel required for the future…too expensive, too hard to make in numbers, too many unproven technologies…not the right system for the world that was foreseen. The DDG-1000 program is a scaled back DD-21 program after that program also proved too expensive.

With both Obama and McCain working in the background developing plans to rework the military acquisition system, this is just one more sign that such changes are critical. In particular, the Navy has been on a road attempting to buy systems that are just too expensive to build in the numbers required.

As we said a year ago :

Stop production of large aircraft carriers. Maintain the current carrier force for the near and mid-term, but as they age and retire, do not replace them. Eventually, they will be phased out. Stop production of the DD21. Continue production of the DDG-51 as the near and mid-term solution. Develop and produce a new Low Observable High Speed (LOHS) amphibious assault ship/craft, that can operate in or near littoral areas, supporting the Marine OMFTS concept. Develop the Streetfighter concept or a follow-on concept that permits low observable craft to operate in a dangerous littoral environment, while able to provide precision fires. Decommission the SSBN fleet and convert them to SSGN (strike arsenal ships). These vessels will be used in the near and mid-term, but as they age and are retired, they will be replaced by a submersible, high speed, arsenal ship armed with precision guided munitions. Maintain the SSN force and continue development, as these ships are most useful in providing access to contested littoral areas. Maintain development of the F/A-18E/F, stop development of the JSF(Navy), and concentrate on the JSF(STOVL) or next generation beyond that. Combine all sealift under the Military Sealift Command and produce more RORO type ships capable of lifting Army or Marine Corps forces and operating offshore.

Simply put, if we keep building our weapons bigger and more expensively, we will not be able to afford them in sufficient numbers to be effective. The Germans had the best equipment in the world during World War II, but that did not stop the Russians and the Americans from rolling over them with larger numbers. As the Russians have said in the past, “Quantity is a quality all its own.”