Abstract : A recent decision to restructure and add 1 year to the program's schedule will provide more time to produce and test key combat systems that will be installed on the lead ships, but calls for doing more work later in construction and after ship delivery. The Navy planned to demonstrate the capabilities of production-representative units of the ship's major systems before installation, an approach aimed at minimizing cost and schedule risk on the lead ship. It has been able to do so for a number of systems. The restructure does not delay the completion of the hull, mechanical, and electrical systems but does delay verifying the performance of the integrated power system, the dual band radar, and software before producing and in some cases installing them on the ship. Specifically: Land-based testing of the integrated power system will not finish until 2011, over a year after units are installed on the first ship. " Delays in land-based testing have slipped installation of the dual band radar by at least 3 years. Moreover, the Navy will not demonstrate the full-power output of the radar needed to meet requirements until after testing of the first production unit sometime after 2010. Software development crucial to the automation that enables reduced manning of the ship has proved challenging. For the most recent software release, the contractor had difficulty coding the ship's command and control component. The Navy certified the release without it meeting about half of the software system requirements, moving work to later releases. Yet the most challenging phases of software development lie ahead. Delays would disrupt plans for activating the ship's critical systems, as well as its combat systems.