Posted on 11/23/2016 3:17:01 AM PST by Daffynition
BATH, Maine — The Bath-built USS Zumwalt, the first-in-class “stealth” destroyer that left the Bath shipyard on Sept. 7, broke down Monday night while passing through the Panama Canal and was towed by tugs through the locks toward the Pacific Ocean.
The DDG 1000, the first of a class of three destroyers that cost an estimated $22 billion combined, “suffered an engineering casualty,” the Navy Times reported. The Zumwalt was towed through the locks to Rodman, a former U.S. military base.
(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...
I’m actually a fan of the Zumwalt, but it’s becoming hard to maintain that status. It has no ammo for its guns — so it has lost it’s primary mission — and now it has broken down and needs a tow. Perhaps it’s still going through a shake-out, but I think it’s off to a poor start.
New class teething problems.
Man, that’s an ugly ship. Named for a Democrat, too.
I still cannot picture that hull in seas over 10ft!! All I can picture is it snuffing its nose on each dip!! I think this ship was for show only.
It looks like a very *techy* ship.
I love technology, especially when it works.
Not so long ago, we were trashing The Russia carrier Admiral Kuznetsov passing around the UK. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
*The ship lost propulsion in its port shaft and salt water leaked into the Zumwalt’s two electrical motors that are driven by its gas turbines and in turn electrically power the ship’s systems, a defense official told USNI News on Tuesday.
In September, the Zumwalt stayed in Norfolk, Virginia for two extra weeks while a seawater leak in the propulsion motor drive oil auxiliary system for one of the ship’s shafts was repaired, Navaltoday.com reported.*
The Russian navy knows how to handle such problems.
They simply have a tugboat escort for every ship that leaves port.
“Crew also saw water intrusion in bearings that connect electrical motors to drive shafts, the website reported.”
Very poor sentence, bearings do NOT “connect” electrical motors to drive shafts.
I worked in an engine room for 3 1/2 years while in the Nav... how the hell seawater can get anywhere and not be detected within a half of a watch is puzzling to me. basically I’ve seen enough to confidently say there is some dereliction of duty goin on here me thinks...
The Panama Canal is no place for a shake down cruise. This is a radical design and needs to be near home port.
The replacement for the OHIO Class ballistic (Columbia Class) missile submarines will have electric propulsion.
Thank you!
DDG 1000 is the first U.S. Navy surface combatant to employ an innovative and highly survivable Integrated Power System (IPS). Key design features that make the DDG 1000 IPS architecture unique include the ability to provide power to propulsion, ship’s service, and combat system loads from the same gas turbine prime movers. DDG 1000’s power allocation flexibility allows for potentially significant energy savings and is well-suited to enable future high energy weapons and sensors.
“innovative and highly survivable”
Maybe it is part of the planned reduction in manning. Smaller crews are great, until you need to fight or save the ship.
At least Sec Navy is focused on important stuff like this. Wait, Mabus has been rewriting rating titles instead. Winning. /s
As I recall, the Zumwalt-class is highly automated and has a unusually small crew of 140. In contrast, both the Spruance-class and Burke-class DDGs have a complement of roughly 340. . .
I was an A-Gang guy and am puzzled myself.
While I appreciate the bleeding-edge technology that this class of ship and the littoral ships represent, it is very concerning that these are all so fragile that they break frequently and in such ways that the crew cannot fix. Towed to a Chinese-operated port in former US Panama is embarrassing.
Give it to the French to use as an escort for their carrier.
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