The Navy is currently developing technologies and studying design options for a planned new cruiser called the CG(X). The Navy wants to procure CG(X)s as replacements for its 22 existing Ticonderoga (CG-47) class Aegis cruisers. The Navy wants the CG(X)s to be highly capable ships, particularly in the areas of anti-air warfare (AAW) and ballistic missile defense (BMD). On April 6, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a decision to 'delay the CG-X next generation cruiser program to revisit both the requirements and acquisition strategy' for the program. Gates' announcement is broadly consistent with press reports about the Navy's intention to defer procurement of the first CG(X) to about FY2017. The Navy has not yet announced a preferred design concept for the CG(X). The Navy originally intended to use the design of its new DDG-1000 destroyer as the basis for the CG(X) design, but this no longer appears to be the Navy's preferred approach. Section 1012 of the FY2008 defense authorization act (H.R. 4986/P.L. 110-181 of January 28, 2008) makes it U.S. policy to construct the major combatant ships of the Navy, including the CG(X), 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 CG(X), but has not yet announced whether it would prefer to build the CG(X) as a nuclear-powered ship. The February 2009 press report about the Navy possibly reducing the CG(X) program to 8 ships also stated that the Navy was considering procuring those 8 ships at a rate of one ship every 3 years. Such a procurement profile might be consistent with the idea of building the CG(X) as a large, nuclear-powered ship with a displacement in the general range of about 20,000 tons. The Navy's proposed FY2009 budget requested $370 million for research and development work on the CG(X).


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