Nobody at sea thinks this is a good idea.
Only 80 VLS tubes and no CIWS. Does anyone believe you can make 16,000 tons of steel "stealth"?
And, at $7.7 billion per unit($23bil for 3) and enormous waste of money. That's 7-8 new Virginia Class subs, 8-9 new Burke Class DDG's or 20-25 modern Frigates.
This is a clear case of Congress and Defense Contractors telling the Navy what they are going to get.
We already have something even stealthier and less vulnerable.
It’s called a submarine.
This sounds like another of those military-industrial complex deals Ike warned us about where the new ship or aircraft or weapons system is just an incidental byproduct.
The cash flow generated by the contract is the true product.
Any surface warship, including the big carriers are floating obsolescent death traps. Once located by any one of numerous modalities, the ships will e swarmed with stealthy drones some as small as seagulls loaded with C4 plastique explosive and directed directly to target. Theoretically the entire US Navy surface combatant fleet can be sunk by a teenager with a joystick sitting in a basement in Tibet.
So, roughly the same firepower as a rowboat.
The bad strath technology in WW I. It is called a frickin’ submarine.
I’d rather have new Virginia class boats and 3-4 Ohio class replacements.
I know there’s a new SSBM in development but there’s no way one of those is going out to sea for less than $2 billion per.
“no CIWS”
Madness.
Not to mention it is on the right track to be a floating, nearly defenseless, highly flammable, lightly manned, deathtrap. Or in other words as you say an insiders' joke on the men and women in the Navy, but part in parcel with the Perfumed Princes' need for shiny expensive toys which do everything and nothing well - and fool the public into believing that these things actually have a purpose and are worth the money because they look neat in a 10 second shot on the MSN news channels.
IIRC that bow plunges the ship underneath big waves and then down to the bottom in a storm.
I understand the whole “stealth” thing, and yes it is a military ship, but we used to build ships, airplanes, and cars for that matter, that had style
This Zumwalt thing looks like it could have been designed by my 9 year old. It is just plain ugly.
China’s New Battle Cruiser Can Shoot Down Satellites
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/02/chinas-new-battle-cruiser-can-shoot-down-satellite.aspx
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NO @!$!@^@%$&^ CIWS?!?!?!
Has the entire military complex lost its godd@mn MIND?!
Good Lord, and I thought the Flunk-35 was a waste.