Composite Work Continues For U.S. Navy Ships

Mar 28, 2011 By Michael Fabey AviationWeek.com

GULFPORT, Miss. — As Northrop Grumman was preparing for the March 24 christening of the amphibious transport dock ship LPD-24 Arlington, the company also was putting together the mast for the LPD-25 using the same fabric of composite materials that not only make the LPD unique but, company officials say, represent the future of U.S. Navy shipbuilding. And while the San Antonio-class of Navy warship masts represent a major step forward in terms of composite construction, Northrop — soon to become Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) — has continued to make vast strides in building composite topside structures for the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers and aircraft carriers, starting with the CVN 77 and further with work on the CVN 78 Ford-class vessels. “The LPD was futuristic,” says Karrie Trauth, Northrop program manager for the DDG 1000. With the DDG 1000 Zumwalt destroyers, she says, the future has become now. Northrop is building the Zumwalt-class integrated composite deckhouses and helo hangars, as well as parts of the ships’ aft peripheral vertical launch systems. The company had to construct a new set of manufacturing buildings to handle work on the Zumwalt, whose composite deckhouse structure is nearly double the width and five times the length of the Antonio-class ship masts. While other companies, even in shipbuilding, also are crafting vessels out of composites, none is involved in programs on the scale and scope of the Zumwalt-class work being done at the Northrop composite shop in the Gulf.