Okay opinion Jeff
I was Playing Call of Duty Ghosts... Yes I know I know video game and all that, I can point out over two dozen plot holes and breaks in reality my self. But any way in one of the levels the Federation of Latin America navy has a destroyer based on the Independence class LCS. In the game the mission is to sink her so you never see more then the bow and the undersides of the hull. Question do you think that a independence based hull could be used for a guided missile destroyer?
Well, let me split this into to two questions.
1) Can the Independence class vessel be turned into a guided-missile combatant, capable of significant AAW, ASuW, and anti-land warfare? Yes.
2) Can the resulting vessel be classified as a destroyer? No, I do not think so. Even the most agressive modifications to the existing trimaren design, the ones that call for adding AEGIS capability to it with Mk-41 VLS capability, will not bring its displacement up enough to consider it a DDG.
The above pic is the proposed GD upgraded Independence class with AEGIS. You can see the two VLS cells amidships, along the side of the deck house, forward of the hanger. There's one on each side. I believe they woudl each be 16 cell launchers.
This version shows two quad cannisters forwad of the deck house. I know that there is provisions there for anbother 16 cell Mk-41. That is what I would do, add another 16 cless there and lose the 2 quad pack SSMs. So, you could load it up with 48 Mk-41 VLS cells.
In those cells, if you included AEGIS, you could laod up anything from SM-6, to ESSM, to Tomahawks, to LRASMs.
You see two 20mm Phalanx on the deck house for CIWS. You could also put two SeaRAM launchers there..22 more AAW missiles, or perhaps one normal RAM launchers and a couple of those 30mm autocannons that the current Freedom class carriers.
Anyhow, the current Independence class is 3,000 tons full load. If you do all of the above you may push 4,500 tons and end up with a vessel armed as follows:
48 x Mk-41 Cells (SM-6, ESSM, Tomahawk, LRASM)
01 x 57mm DP naval gun
01 x RAM with 21 Cells
02 x 30mm auto cannons
02 x SeaHawk helos w/hanger
Now, someone would have to look hard at the existing Independence hull design and see if it can handle that extra weight...but I have to presume GD did that when putting forth that proposal in the concept art above. That would be a very decent frigate...but I would not call it a DDG.
I liked to see ca. 110m raise for the Long Range Land Attack Projectile, wish it a success (the ERGM wasn't)
