Posted on 06/04/2012 6:36:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Looking a bit like an old Civil War Ironclad, the $7 billion DDG 1000 USS Zumwalt will focus on land attacks, relying heavily on its advanced stealth technology to slip in close to shore before unleashing its massive onboard arsenal.
A new take on the Zumwalt was published today by the Eric Talmadge at the Associated Press who points out that in addition to the ship's wide array of conventional weapons the Zumwalt will eventually carry the Navy's much anticipated "railgun".
The railgun is an electrically powered artillery weapon that launches massive projectiles at high speeds without the use of gunpowder or explosives. Instead, an electric current is run through the artillery shell, the current interacts with the magnetic fields in the rails and pounds the shell from the barrel.
The Navy successfully tested the railgun in February, but it has not yet been fielded for service.
The Zumwalt was originally estimated to cost about $3.8 billion, but so much technology crammed on board that its cost has nearly doubled, and after the first three are built, production will stop. Including the exhaustive research and development required by each vessel to total cost jumps to $7 billion apiece.
In addition the Zumwalt will be built to receive the Navy's new electromagnetic rail-gun that can fire projectiles at over five times the speed of sound. All this new technology adds up.
Defense analyst Jay Korman says "They were looking to introduce so many new technologies at once, and the cost ballooned." Korman works with the Avascent Group concluded, "I don't think people have changed their minds that it's a capable ship. It's just too expensive."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I was kind of under the impression that air power had long since replaced sea-based artillery.
Ok, so we are ripping off the CSN for our designs now.
Except there will be rail guns forward rather than the smokeless powder versions shown.
Well, I always knew The South would rise again!...................
I have always had two concerns about stealth technology.
1. That eventually someone will come up with a way of detecting it... rendering all of these crazy expensive stealth a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.
2. That if stealth can be used on boats, bombers, and fighters.. it can be used on nuclear armed ICBM’s too... which completely eliminates the ability to retaliate in a nuclear war since you are destroyed before you ever know your under attack.
——it can be used on nuclear armed ICBM’s too... which completely eliminates the ability to retaliate in a nuclear war since you are destroyed before you ever know your under attack.-——
Subs and silos.
Agreed, do we really need to spend $7 BN/ship right now? I mean, that’s almost what we spend on an aircraft carrier right now.
Did they dredge up some old Civil War ironclad blue prints?
Option 1 is certainly a possibility, although most of the countries we’re worried about don’t have enough money to build the necessary defensive systems.
Option 2, I don’t see that as a real threat.
We used to defeat Communism by show of force before we started accommodating them by turning over our manufacturing base.
Nonetheless, these warships when finally delivered will be experimental platforms rather than useful ships. Question for the USN: If the Chinese find a way around your stealthy design (and they will), then what you've got is a $7 billion TARGET.
A railgun?! Wow, didn’t realize we were that far on the technology. The video on that link was pretty awesome too!
A railgun?! Wow, didn’t realize we were that far on the technology. The video on that link was pretty awesome too!
1. That eventually someone will come up with a way of detecting it... rendering all of these crazy expensive stealth a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.
2. That if stealth can be used on boats, bombers, and fighters.. it can be used on nuclear armed ICBM’s too... which completely eliminates the ability to retaliate in a nuclear war since you are destroyed before you ever know your under attack.
The stealth here is mostly in the angles that the ship is built with that reflect the radar up and away.
They might also try to use some of the radar absorbing coatings but I have my doubts that that will stand up well to a marine environment.
ICBMs are mostly detected by their heat signature in the boost phase not by radar. It'll be a while before that can be hidden but a really large rail gun hidden in a mountain might just do the trick.
I'm not sure why this is so expensive. All most all of this technology has already been developed and paid for.
You could reactive all For Iowa Class Battleships and still have money left over for that price.
I hope the Zummwalt's won't be like the POS littoral Combat ships that have been thrust upon the Navy. Those ships are less useful than a PT boat, have a price tag of 1 billion, and shoddily built.
We are spending what 2.79 billion per month in Afghanistan right now??
I would rather spend the money on technology and at least put Americans to work.
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