SNA: Unicorns, leprechauns and the CG(X) AoA
January 12th, 2010 | Ballistic missile defense leadership Science and technology SNA Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Within certain very narrow circles in Washington, it’s amazing how much influence is wielded by pieces of paper. The budget, the 30-year shipbuilding plan, the Quadrennial Defense Review, the Ballistic Missile Defense Review — although these would all sound to most Americans like a buncha nonsense (and they might not be wrong) the right documents still get select pulses going. So it is with the most elusive wraith of them all — the Flying Dutchman of Pentagon deliberation — the specter on the moor known as the analysis of alternatives for the next-generation cruiser, aka the CG(X) AoA.
People tell fantastic tales about it. It’s supposed to be 500 pages long! But like Brigadoon, word of the CG(X) AoA materializes only when the tides and the stars are right, as was apparently the case Tuesday for Rear Adm. Frank Pandolfe, who is in charge of surface warfare for the Navy Staff in the Pentagon. It was he, in response to a question, who mentioned that he couldn’t talk about future ship developments, but in doing so, he mentioned that the CG(X) AoA — gasp! were your ears playing tricks? — was finished. That itself isn’t new, but when Scoop Deck had an opportunity to ask Pandolfe whether this phantom would ever step into the light of day, here’s what he said:
“The decisions that flow from the CG(X) AoA will unfold in time. I can’t talk to them right now. I can talk to the [fiscal year] 10 budget, but I can’t talk to future shipbuilding plans or the [fiscal year] 11 submission. In due time we can have this conversation, but I can’t commit to it today. I can’t say what [the Defense Department] will do. The work is done. It has been submitted. It will be acted upon. The path that [the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates] takes to unveil that decision and to share the decision-making process, I can’t discuss. I don’t have that information.”
Comments
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The Scoop Deck – Death knell for CG(X) Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 pm[...] CG(X) — we hardly knew ye. Sure, some people knew ye very well — 500 pages well, in the fabled analysis of alternatives that only appeared once a year, on fire, on the horizon off Ocracoke. But for the rest of us, this [...]
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RetiredNukeLDO Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:56 pmDang! Never appreciated the 38 Class Cruisers until I went to a CVN. Shame there won’t be more down the line!
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The Scoop Deck – Does the Pentagon need a review review? Says:
May 21st, 2010 at 10:40 am[...] the mystical CG(X) analysis of alternatives, whose shrieking ghost, legend has it, still is heard late at night in certain parts of the [...]