Program Timeline

• Fleet engineering start: convert concepts into true naval architecture and engineering packages for FFG, DDG, and CAG, including hull form, weight growth, machinery arrangement, power architecture, combat-space layout, and fallback-system baselines.
• Yard engineering start: begin real design work for GOCO yards, GOGO lane additions, COCO upgrade packages, module-campus layouts, rail and utility corridors, drydock changes, pier plans, shops, and training annexes.
• Governance cell: stand up the joint team that works with Congress, governors, the Navy, DLA, state agencies, and federal departments to carry funding, authorities, land control, and permitting through the opening phase.
• Executive-action path: identify where executive orders, emergency authorities, defense-production tools, and expedited federal decisions are required to cut red tape and start work while preserving legal controls.
• Cleanup baseline: launch hazmat and environmental surveys, remediation sequencing, and parallel construction controls so cleanup and yard activation can run together rather than one after the other.

• Ship-design RFP and review gates: down-select core design teams for the three hulls and force every class to mature against cost, weight, schedule, and fallback-system rules.
• New-tech RFP wave: issue separate contractor lanes for pods, Trinion gun system, battery packaging, DMC spaces, module-interface standards, Cerberus variants, and other new-tech items that need design, prototype, and test effort.
• Yard tenant RFP path: begin solicitations for contractors that will lease and operate GOCO yards, module campuses, and selected DLA-connected support spaces once activation gates are met.
• Governor and state package: execute the funding-and-siting campaign with governors, legislatures, development authorities, labor, schools, and local institutions so campuses, training annexes, and utility corridors can move on synchronized terms.
• Academy and schooling setup: establish workforce academies, union/trade pipelines, community-college partnerships, veteran-transition lanes, and yard-specific training plans before the heavy hiring wave begins.

• Detailed engineering: push the lead hull and common-shipset packages toward real buildable design maturity rather than concept-only drawings.
• DLA expansion block: grow the procurement and storage plan for steel, generators, turbines, boats, vehicles, sensors, module interfaces, and long-lead shipsets so material is in hand before yard demand peaks.
• Supply-route design: lock the delivery logic for module campuses, major yards, depots, road/rail/barge corridors, and reserve storage so DLA can stage against the production sequence.
• Construction while cleaning: begin yard buildout in cleared zones while cleanup continues in controlled phases elsewhere on the same site under milestone gates and environmental reporting.
• Community and environmental integration: keep environmental agencies, local organizations, and redevelopment stakeholders inside the execution loop so cleanup and construction remain politically sustainable.

• Lease and operator awards: award the first contractor lease and operating packages for GOCO yards, module campuses, and selected support sites once readiness gates are met.
• Prototype and test decisions: review pod, gun, module, and control-space prototype progress and lock which systems are mature enough for early flight use versus which remain stop-gap or later-block insertions.
• Material-on-hand rule: require DLA and approved suppliers to hold the critical baseline shipset, campus-tooling, and construction-material inventory needed for the first real production wave.
• Workforce transition: shift from academy setup to apprentice intake, instructor assignment, and tenant hiring against actual lane activation dates.
• Readiness gate: by the end of Month 24 the program should have real ship engineering, real yard designs, active cleanup and construction, awarded operator paths, active state partners, active schools, and long-lead material flow established.

Sequencing is intentionally FFG-first: no active FFG inventory today and this is the fastest/lowest-cost path to restore escort and ASW density.

Documented details

• FFG is the lead class; CAG follows; DDG follows after.
• Initial years expand FFG lane count progressively toward 16 lanes.
• 2030-2032 readiness gates include Mk 45 Mod 4/Mk 41 VLS and ASROC certification staging.

CAG scales second to restore cruiser-level command/flag capability as Tico-era capacity retires; DDG remains deferred to a later phase.

Documented details

• CAG starts with transitional propulsion fallback if Odyssey is not yet ready.
• DDG entry is intentionally delayed while Flight III Burke and Zumwalt capability remains adequate in the near term.
• Lane growth first favors FFG and CAG before DDG late-ramp activation.

Refits start by 2035. DDG large-scale production is pushed later, after FFG and CAG goals are substantially met.

Documented throughput targets

• Current site model uses a year-specific ramp with peak annual starts of 6 FFG, 6 DDG, and 3 CAG depending on year.
• Refit cycles are five-year based, with fallback systems preventing build stoppages.
• No vessel should go beyond seven years without major refit in the long-range model.
• Refit throughput rule: standard refits use a 90-day authorized planning window with a 74-day work schedule and 16-day delay/rework margin; major refit is an exception that may take longer. CAG refit planning baseline remains 2 active lanes with surge margin available.

The program starts with FFG to address immediate frigate/ASW shortfalls, then scales into CAG and DDG classes.

This is repeatedly stated in your outline and chronology as the risk-control rule for technology insertion.

Examples in source text: Mk 45 Mod 4 until Trinion is qualified, Mk 41 VLS IWM compatibility path while Mk 57 PVLS missile certification/production scales, and shaft/rudder until Odyssey pod readiness.

Class and technology details are expanded in Ships and Tech.

• Contracting posture: separate R&D from production, enforce no-change-after-steel-cut, and score yards on schedule/cost/quality gates.
• Pricing approach: lead-ship and early-flight should-cost baselines with strict variance reporting.
• Technology approach: current-tech stop-gaps remain mandatory to prevent concurrency-driven cost growth.

• Contracting posture: expand common-shipset buys (sensors, power, consoles, launch infrastructure) across classes.
• Pricing approach: combine block buys with EOQ for common systems to reduce unit volatility.
• Governance approach: quarterly VPS scores drive option exercise, workshare growth, or work transfer.

• Contracting posture: modernization by module replacement within five-year refit rhythm.
• Pricing approach: convert modernization spikes into forecastable recurring lines.
• Risk control: keep maximum three major new technologies per block and preserve fallback systems until qualification.

• CRS (updated January 16, 2026) states the Navy began retiring the remaining 22 CGs in FY2022 and had planned to retire all 22 by end FY2027.
• Navy press release dated November 4, 2024 extends three cruisers: Gettysburg (CG-64), Chosin (CG-65), and Cape St. George (CG-71), adding cumulative service life from FY2026 to FY2029.
• Planning implication: CAG must scale in the FY2030-FY2034 window to avoid a cruiser-command gap.

• CRS RL32109 (updated December 5, 2025): Flight I/II DDG-51 ships generally have 35-year ESL, with retirements beginning in the late 2020s; some are certified to 40 years.
• Navy press release dated October 31, 2024 extends 12 Flight I destroyers, adding 48 cumulative ship-years in the 2028-2035 timeframe.
• CRS IF11679 (updated January 16, 2026): first DDG(X) procurement remains planned for the early 2030s (FY2032 in FY2025 plan projections), but program path has uncertainty due reported BBG(X)-related policy questions.
• Planning implication: DDG can remain third in sequence, but DDG ramp must be ready before Flight I/II retirement wave accelerates in the 2030s.

The chronology board mixes cumulative qualified lane capacity and delivered-hull totals. Qualified lane counts are not equivalent to simultaneously active new-build lanes.

• Early ramp (2030): build-heavy posture.
• Mid-program (2040-2050): FFG/CAG completion with DDG in late ramp.
• Post-goal phase (2051+): refit-heavy posture after 100/70/30 force objective is complete.
• CAG specificity: planning baseline is 2 active CAG refit lanes; no timeline line should imply 5 active CAG refit lanes without declared surge conditions.

See the explicit build-vs-refit lane table in Visual Shipbuilding Chronology.

This historical lead-up is preserved for provenance only. It is superseded by the current production schedule, which begins in 2029 and runs without skipped years through 2052.

• Current chronology board is now driven by an exact user-directed annual-rate profile (Year 1 through Year 15 plus hold), not a capped target-only profile.
• Current shifted schedule ends in 2052 with 102 FFG, 70 DDG, and 28 CAG, totaling 200 delivered ships.
• The two-year implementation delay is incorporated in the current year-by-year chronology.
• Rationale: DDG comes last because Burke Flight III and Zumwalt capability remains acceptable in the near term.