Is DD-21 Project In Trouble?

According to a report in the NY Times and circulated by the major wire services, the U.S. Navy's proposed DD- 21 class of destroyers may be endangered. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted that the Pentagon budget will have to grow by as much as $70 billion a year to maintain existing weapons systems while moving ahead with new ones such as the DD-21, while President-elect George Bush has proposed increasing military spending by $4.5 billion a year over the next decade, the Times said. The Times said the new administration likely will have to cancel or postpone some major defense programs in development, such as the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter, made by Lockheed- Martin Corp., the Marine Corp's V-22 Osprey aircraft, a joint project of Textron Inc. and Boeing Co., and the DD-21, the Times said, citing defense analysts. The DD-21 could be the most endangered because it is the furthest from development, the Times said. General Dynamics is scheduled to release diagrams of the electric-powered DD-21 at a Navy conference this week.