Navy opts for steel deckhouse

After two Zumwalt-class destroyers were built with composite deckhouses, the Navy is switching to a steel deckhouse for DDG-1002, the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson. The Navy was reportedly unhappy with the costs of the composite structures. In a January solicitation it indicated it might need a steel deckhouse. Earlier this month the Navy and General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works inked a $212 million contract not only for the deckhouse, but the hangar and aft peripheral vertical launching system (PVLS) modules for the ship. Zumwalt-class ships were originally designed to replace the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class ships as the Navy's primary destroyer force, but the Navy opted to build just three. The composite deckhouses were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding's composite center in Gulfport, Miss. The move raises questions about the use of composites for large-scale ship sections. (Sources: PRNewswire, Aviation Week, Marine Log, 08/05/13) Previous