DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240365

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A15  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ANNAPOLIS, MD.                    LENGTH:   66 lines

NEXT GENERATION OF NAVY SHIPS WILL BE ABLE TO DO MORE WITH LESS FIREPOWER WILL BE UPGRADED AND CREWS WILL BE SMALLER, ADM. JOHNSON SAYS.

The Navy will replace many of today's destroyers and frigates with a highly automated class of surface ships that service leaders hope can sail with crews of 95, 70 percent less than comparable ships now in the fleet, the nation's top admiral said Wednesday.

Adm. Jay L. Johnson, the chief of naval operations, said the new ships also should be 70 percent cheaper to operate than today's Arleigh Burke destroyers. The service hopes to hold the cost of each of the new ships to under $900 million, less than it now pays for the Burke destroyers.

Johnson's remarks to several hundred members of the U.S. Naval Institute, a professional organization devoted to naval affairs, were among the most detailed made by any Navy leader to date concerning the SC-21 class of ships now under development.

His comments underscored the determination of the Navy's leadership to save money by reducing ship manning levels. With defense budgets remaining flat for the foreseeable future, Johnson has said crew sizes must be slashed to free funds for new ships and aircraft.

Just a 10 percent cut in at-sea manning, Johnson said Wednesday, would give the service about $500 million more per year for other purposes.

Because it will be up to 20 years before large numbers of the new ships are in service, their reduced manning levels should pose no threat to the careers of today's enlisted sailors, Navy officials have said. But their development means that the next generation Navy may need far fewer people than the almost 500,000 now serving.

Each new destroyer is to carry a 5-inch gun that can hurl rocket-assisted shells up to 75 miles and a 1,500-round twin 155mm vertical gun able to hit targets up to 100 miles away, Johnson said.

The 5-inch guns on today's destroyers have a range of 13 miles; battleships, like those the Navy used in World War II, could hurl shells up to 25 miles.

Shells being developed for 5-inch guns on the new ships are to be far more accurate than today's models or those fired by the larger, World War II-era guns. They will be steered to their targets, using signals relayed by satellite, and each will carry 140 bomblets.

Johnson said the new destroyers, the first of which will join the fleet around 2008, will be equipped primarily to support Marine and Army forces ashore. They will have 128 launch tubes and the ability to fire any missile in the Navy's inventory, he added.

The Navy recently brought its controversial ``arsenal ship'' under the SC-21 program umbrella, renaming it the ``maritime fire support demonstrator'' and telling congressional committees it will serve as a test platform for electronic and automated systems that will be incorporated into the new destroyers.

The arsenal ship was a brainchild of Johnson's predecessor, Adm. Mike Boorda. He envisioned it as essentially a missile barge with up to 500 launchers and room to carry more than 1,000 missiles; it is to have a crew of no more than 50.

Initially well-received on Capitol Hill, the idea has come under attack from Republicans and Democrats this year; critics suggest that ships and planes already in service can perform the same mission and that the arsenal ship's huge array of missiles will make it a fat target.

The Navy hopes to put the fire support demonstrator to sea in about three years, using funds obtained through a special Defense Department experimental program. Service leaders say a decision about building more of the ships will be delayed until the first ship shows its value. ILLUSTRATION: Chief of Naval Operations Jay L. Johnson

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