The DD(X) system design team led by Northrop Grumman Corporation has executed a major risk reduction test on its peripheral vertical launching system (PVLS) magazine within three months after work began on the contract. DD(X) is the U.S. destroyer, DD(X). costs. The PVLS test article is a full-scale assembly that was fabricated at Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems' facility in Pascagoula, Miss. Once built, the article was transported to a facility in Aberdeen, Md., to be staged, instrumented and loaded with representative ordnance. Ship Systems proposed a PVLS alternative to the traditional VLS configuration of centralized missile magazines.