General Dynamics NASSCO is looking to U.S. Navy for interest in new VLS reloading destroyer tenders, known as AD(X), as part of a combined buy of common hulls with the future AS(X) submarine tender.
Crystal City, Va — General Dynamics NASSCO unveiled its internally developed concept for an AD(X) destroyer tender at the Surface Navy Association’s National Symposium in Washington last week, pitching the ship class as a near-identical ship to the AS(X) submarine tender NASSCO is building for the U.S. Navy.
NASSCO provided new details on AS(X) as well as the potential AD(X) destroyer tender in an interview with Brett Hershman, Director of Government Relations & Business Development at General Dynamics NASSCO.
The destroyer tender concept is based on the AS(X) submarine tender hull which NASSCO is on contract to deliver in coming years. The submarine tenders will replace the Emory S. Land-class tenders homeported in Apra Harbor, Guam, and will add capability to service Block V Virginia-class attack submarines as well as Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.
“The submarine tender is a two-ship program of record to replace the two ships that are out at Guam,” Hershman explained to Naval News. “It’s a one-to-one replacement that is more capable of tending Virginia Block V and Columbia.”
The destroyer tender, unlike AS(X), is an internal NASSCO effort. “You can take a submarine tender. It’s the same concept, same hull, and a big floating maintenance facility,” Hershman explained, justifying the reasoning behind NASSCO’s work. “If you wanted to, rather than make it two ships, you can make it a larger program.”
Having a common hull across both ship designs can reduce costs and build experience with yard workers. Short programs with few ships comes with more risk and higher cost by laws of economic ordering quantities, but with more ships in a class—or in this case sub-classes, cost and risk can be reduced while adding shipyard experience, confidence, and resilience.
“When you do a multi-year procurement contract for multiple ship [equipment] sets, that allows you to put all that stuff in a contract early, you see savings. 5-7% is a general number. Across a multi-billion dollar ship program, that adds up.”
Brett Hershman, Director of Government Relations & Business Development at General Dynamics NASSCO
A key demand signal NASSCO recognized ahead of its development of the destroyer tender concept was the U.S. Navy’s need to reload VLS at-sea and underway. The fleet has previously used T-AKRs and T-AKEs for reloading, according to Hershman, and a common hull used for reloading would build skill and proficiency for the crews that will eventually work VLS reloading mechanisms in development.
The tenders will have a VLS-reloading capability for up to four destroyers with only minor modifications to the parent AS(X) design. Those changes could even save costs rather than add them, according to Hershman. The modifications include changes to crane length and maintenance areas—removing radiation shielding from the AS(X) submarine tender and adding crane length capability to service wider destroyer-sized ships.
AS(X) already has dynamic positioning systems to keep the ship static in place, enabling Navy CONOPS that seek out reloading capability in harbors or atolls that are protected from open ocean environments. AD(X) would have the same dynamic positioning equipment to hold steady for reloading and material transfer missions.
Work to deliver a VLS reloading capability is still in progress with additional testing planned on the USNS Montford Point, an Expeditionary Transfer Dock, in 2026. That work will inform the ultimate possibility of a new destroyer tender being added to the fleet.
