Return of the CGNs?

he Navy - in part due to congressional pressure - is examining the possibility of a large, 25,000-ton missile cruiser with nuclear propulsion. Details of the proposals and analyses were revealed this week by Christopher P. Cavas in Defense News and Navy Times.

Two cruiser designs are being considered. The first is a new warship based on the controversial DDG 1000 (Zumwalt class) destroyer, which features the controversial “tumblehome” hull. This design is being called an “escort cruiser” to protect aircraft carrier strike groups. It would have gas turbine propulsion, as do all other U.S. cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.

The second cruiser would be a much larger, 25,000-ton, nuclear-propelled ship with a more conventional hull featuring a flared bow. This ship would be optimized for the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) mission.

Reportedly, five nuclear-propelled CGN(X) ships and 14 escort cruisers designated CG(X) would be built to fulfill the cruiser requirement in the Navy’s 30-year, 313-ship plan. These ships would be, in part, a replacement for the 22 remaining Ticonderoga (CG 47) missile cruisers, completed between 1986 and 1994.

The CGNs were decommissioned back in the 1990s due to the costs of refueling and the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to upgrade them to a VLS config when their previous launchers were obsolete. Now they're talking trading off 7 Aegis replacements (CG(X) escort cruisers) for 5 battlewagon sized nuclear powered cruisers. In the abstract I have little against other than perhaps the cost. Something this large and with this much expense just for the propulsion element, then I get the feeling that the push will be to fill it to the brim with weapons that will double the cost again and then it will get cancelled part way through the contract leaving there only 14 cruisers instead of 22. We really need 2 AAW cruisers (with extended capabilities) for each carrier: in the era where the world's largest navy may have to face down the world's largest air force, it doesn't matter if every single missile hits and kills a single jet if you run out of missiles before they run out of jets.