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 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 Navys preferred approach. Although the Navys FY2009 budget submission called for procuring the first CGX in FY2011, the Navy reportedly now plans to defer procurement of the first CGX to FY20l7. 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. The Navys proposed FY2009 budget requested 370 million for research and development work on the CGX. The Navys proposed FY2009 budget did not request any advance procurement funding for the first CGX. The compromise version of the FY2009 DOD appropriation bill, which became Division C of H.R. 263 8P.L. 110-329 of September 30,2008, reduces the Navys FY2009 research and development finding request for the CGX by 120.8 million.