Navy CG(X) Cruiser Program: Background, Oversight Issues, and Options for Congress

The Navy is currently developing technologies and studying design options for a planned new cruiser called the CGX. The Navy wants to procure 19 CGXs as replacements for its 22 existing Ticonderoga CG-47 class Aegis cruisers. The Navy wants the CGX to be a highly capable multi-mission ship with an emphasis on air defense and ballistic missile defense BMD. The Navy has not yet announced a preferred design concept for the CGX. Observers were expecting the Navy to announce a preferred design concept in late 2007early 2008, but such an announcement is now expected to occur no earlier than late 2008early 2009. The Navy originally intended to use the design of its new DDG-1000 destroyer as the basis for the CGX design, but it is no longer clear that this is still the Navy s preferred approach. Although the Navy s FY2009 budget calls for procuring the first CGX in FY2011, some press reports speculate that, as a result of the Navy s delay in announcing a preferred design for the CGX, the Navy, as part of its FY2010 budget submission next year, may defer the scheduled procurement of the lead ship to FY2012 or a later fiscal year. Section 1012 of the FY2008 defense authorization act H.R. 4986P.L. 110-181 of January 28, 2008 makes it U.S. policy to construct the major combatant ships of the Navy, including the CGX, with integrated nuclear power systems, unless the Secretary of Defense submits a notification to Congress that the inclusion of an integrated nuclear power system is not in the national interest. The Navy has studied nuclear power as a design option for the CGX, but has not yet announced whether it would prefer to build the CGX as a nuclear-powered ship. Procurement of a nuclear-powered CGX in FY2011 would, under normal budgeting practices, involve funding the ship s long-leadtime nuclear-propulsion components in FY2009.