"The U.S. Navy Is Turning Its Stealth Destroyers Into..." Topic

…Ship-Killers

"The U.S. Navy is transforming its Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyers into surface-warfare ships whose main mission will be sinking other vessels at sea. In swapping the job of the three-ship class, the Navy is admitting that its original concept for the 600-foot, stealthy warships is no longer viable.

"We see an opportunity with this ship, with its ability to carry the weapons it can carry and the types of design we put into it for signature control, that we think is a very good platform to be used forward as a surface-strike platform," said Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, the sailing branch's director of surface warfare.

The mission-change, first reported by the news website of the U.S. Naval Institute in early December, came as Michael Monsoor, the second ship in the class after Zumwalt, set sail for builder's trials off the coast of Maine. The third ship in the class, Lyndon B. Johnson, is under construction…."
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Armand

Hrm. The Navy is going to have to add some better anti-air defenses.

And sort out the anti-ship weapons, since the existing M982 Excalibur shells are GPS guided and not target-seeking. And Harpoon missiles aren't VLS-compatible.

There is a new ASM coming (assuming it gets fully funded and works as advertised).

The design can carry a fair number of SAMs as is, I'm not about it's ability to direct them effectively though.

Thanks for spending our money in so many incompetent ways.

So, the US Navy has spent billions of dollars in the development of a weapons platform that can't perform its intended function, so now it will be used to do something that the US Navy actually does perfectly well with the ships already in service.

I think it's an attempt to get SOMETHING useful out of the hull for the next 40 years.

But that particular mission is much better performed by submarines.