Hilarity Down at the Naming Office
By DD(X) has a number. It is now DDG 1000. The reasons for this are unclear.
It’s fair to say that the Navy’s system for numbering ships is inconsistent. The last Spruance class destroyer was DD-997. The last Arleigh Burke class destroyer will be DDG-113. The DD(X) program was initially referred to as DD21 in honor of the arrival of the 21st century, along with SSN 21 and CVN 21. Those aren’t official designations, and it’s unclear what number the CVN(X) will be given when it arrives in ten years or so.
The DDG-1000 designation would seem to restore destroyer numeration to what it was before the advent of the DDG, or guided missile destoyer, designation. Since every modern destoyer carries guided missiles, there doesn’t seem to be much point in having two different designations. However, this ignores the fact that there are 112 DDGs that aren’t part of the DD list, except for the few that are because they were converted from DDs to DDGs at some point…ugh.
The cruiser designation is just as complicated. CC means battlecruiser, of which there were six listed and none constructed. CB means large cruiser, which is somehow different from battlecruiser. CA means heavy cruiser or armored cruiser, of which 153 numbers were given out, although far fewer ships were built. CL is light cruiser, with 159 numbers but, again, far fewer ships. But, then, in the 1960s the USN started renaming its CAs and CLs CAG (guided missile cruiser, eventually CG, although CGN and CLG designations would also be used), and started over from 1. For those keeping score, we’re now on CG-73. That, however, includes several classes of ships that were originally given the DLG (guided missile destroyer leader, more or less) designation, but were then changed to CG when the Navy realized that destroyer leaders are pretty much just light cruisers.
The submarine list made a little bit more sense, until SSN-21, Seawolf. The Virginia class submarines are designated SSN-774 and up, which puts then in the same line of ships as every other US submarine, including SSNs, SS, SSK (although there were SSKs 1-3), SSBN, and SSG. Seawolf (SSN-21), Connecticut (SSN-22), and Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) are alone in an undersea designation wilderness.
The aircraft carrier situation is much simpler. It starts with CV-1 (Langley) and ends with CVN-77. Presumably the next carrier will be CVN-78. The designation has changed a few times (including CVL, CVN, CVAN, and CVS), but the list remains unbroken.
Anyway, a system designed to provide a coherent and simple way of designating ships has done anything but. The DDG-1000 designation confounds the good folks at Defense News, who suspect that the Navy is giving the number in a vain and pathetic attempt to save a ship that nobody likes, or that the Navy has (and I quote) “‘triskaidekaphobia,’ the fear of the number 13.” Given that the Navy has not skipped thirteen for any other designation, I think I have to go with the vain and pathetic attempt to save a ship nobody likes by giving it a cool number. We’ll see what kind of name they come up with; maybe whoever is Senate Majority Leader at the time, or the latest winner of American Idol, or the Superbowl MVP…