"Years Late And Over Budget US Navy Accepts Delivery" Topic

… Of First Zumwalt-Class Destroyer.

"The US Navy has accepted delivery of the first Zumwalt-class destroyer, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), at its new homeport in San Diego.

The vessel will now transition from Combat Systems Activation to the next phase of developmental and integrated at-sea testing.

DDG 1000 is the lead ship of the US Navy's next-generation of multi-mission surface combatants…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Interesting.

I wonder if it has any weapons.

Last I heard, the railgun for it was being reconsidered, since the ammunition was deemed to be too expensive to purchase. Not sure if they have addressed that "little" issue.

I know they're only building two of these, so hope they're a little more useful than those "Little Crappy Ships" AKA LCS' that we bought.

If not, it/they will certainly be a more impressive naval yacht than the LCS, for the captain and crew to sail around on, assuming it doesn't submerge in heavy seas.

It appears the USN ship procurement is to overpay for a ship without weapons and buy them in small numbers.

Thresher they're building 3 Zumwalts (USS Zumwalt, USS Michael Monsoor and USS Lyndon B Johnson).

Like the LCS they are horrifically undergunned especially as the 2 155mm guns are unusable.

They pack 80 VLS slots which is 10 less than older Arleigh Burkes and 16 less than the latest Arleigh Burkes. Also no torpedo tubes unlike the Arleigh Burkes which have 6. Zummwalts cannot carry Standard 6 long range SAMS or AGN-84 Harpoon anti ship missiles which the Arleigh Burkes can carry both these missiles.

Finally the latest Arleigh Burkes carry up to 2 helicopters compared to only 1 for a Zumwalt.

And note the Arleigh Burkes displace 6000 tons less and cost $1.6 USD billion less per ship.

Along with the LCS the Zumwalt class are an utter disaster and huge waste of tax payer dollars.

Ah, I stand corrected. I thought it was only two.

Wow, didn't realize the Burkes were that much better. Not sure why anyone in their right mind would buy these, paying so much more for far less capability, unless they're on the public/private dole, and/or will get a very lucrative board position with the main contractor once they retire from the USN/Pentagon.

No doubt there probably were some lucrative post-retirement positions as is the usual case with US defence procurement. The US military higher echelons are rather corrupt these days.

A big problem was the specification and especially the mission. The whole premise was these things would sneak in using their stealth profile and then initiate high precision gun attacks.

Instead of big bloody guns firing big bloody shells they opted for an overpriced 155mm gun firing super high tech rounds that cost a million dollars a shell.

So then the guns gets scrapped and with that the ship lost its mission.

So without the gun you're left with a giant ship that offers poorer capability than smaller ones.

For comparison the Chinese Type 55 is at 13,000 max load a bit smaller than a Zumwalt but bigger than a Arleigh Burke. It packs 112 VLS (so 32 more than a Zumwalt), carries 2 helos. It doesn't have torpedo tubes but can launch torpedoes from VLS, has a 130mm gun (not that dissimilar from Arleigh Burke 127mm). It appears to a have a fleet command function.

An odd looking thing…

*sigh*

Glup!….

Amicalement
Armand

Dear me.The belief that the more expensive a thing is the more effective it will be. Same at an individual level with rifles and shotguns, of course….

Looks like the skimmers wanted a new toy.

Nothing like building an SSN that can't submerge/hide… or shoot… or cruise without refueling for 10 years…

at least it's cheaper… right?