This study examines the initiative to build a twenty-first century destroyer that has a crew of only ninety-five sailors. DD21 will lead the Navy in the next century. The crew of 300 in today’s destroyers operates systems, sensors, and weapons to conduct combat operations. Damage control is required if the ship sustains damage during operations. The types of damage that may occur are fire, flooding, and hull or structural. A combination of these is a major conflagration. The focus of the crew turns from fighting the ship to saving the ship when this occurs. Automating tasks performed by sailors using integrated monitoring and sensing systems enable the reduction in crew by about 70 percent in DD21. Fully automated damage detection, fire fighting, and flooding control are a few of the areas that are to be augmented by technology to enable the reduction of the crew. Can a 70 percent reduction in crew and applied technology successfully combat catastrophic damage in DD21? The answer comes from the tasks accomplished, the personnel accomplishing the tasks, and the equipment used to accomplish the tasks. The analysis determined that 70 percent reduction of personnel is feasible assuming some important factors are taken into account.
