The seapower subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing today on the Navy's destroyer acquisition program.

Navy officials recently decided to cut the DDG 1000 next-generation destroyer program, directly affecting Bath Iron Works, one of Maine's largest employers.

The state's congressional delegation announced last week that the Navy would buy just two of the Zumwalt-class destroyers, now under construction at BIW and at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss.

The Navy now plans to have the two yards build nine more ships in the current class of destroyer, the DDG 51, also known as the Arleigh Burke, instead of discontinuing that program, the delegation said.

People scheduled to speak to the seapower subcommittee today included Allison Stiller, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy; Eric Labs, senior analyst, Congressional Budget Office; Paul Francis, director of acquisition and sourcing management, U.S. Government Accountability Office; and Ron O'Rourke, specialist in naval affairs, Congressional Research Service.