Stealth destroyer to be home for 1st hypersonic weapon on a US warship

AP News ^ | November 30, 2024 | DAVID SHARP

[Red Badger]

The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers.

The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship.

“It was a costly blunder. But the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production.

Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added maneuverability making them harder to shoot down.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

And the phrase LEAPING out of the ASSociated Press:

"...never activated because it was too expensive...."

[AppyPappy]

Hard to shoot down, harder to aim at a moving target, more easily destroyed by debris.

[hardspunned]

Yeah, Right! These destroyers are the biggest dark hole, money pit failures the MIC has ever stuck the USN with. Why are they changing weapons? Their original gun’s per round cost was $800,000! Apparently the MIC funneled off $22B is design costs to build three of the 32 originally planned ships.

The way we get fleeced by the MIC for the junk we give our fighting men is criminal. In 2023 the Russians spent total less than $100billion on defense. The failed Zumwalt profit feed cost 20% of what Russia spent to kick NATO’s arse all over 2023!

“$22,000,000,000 Zumwalt-Class Stealth Destroyer Nightmare“

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/22000000000-zumwalt-class-stealth-destroyer-nightmare-211077

[DesertRhino]

“The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive“

I remember when the navy was bragging that the Zumwalt having a gun proved that the navy cared about fire support for natives Marines ashore. Typical….

[Navy Patriot]

Please, They’re more The Associated Presstitutes than they are The ASSociated Press.

[jz638]

Buried lede: navy wasted a lot of money building a boat that doesn’t do what it was designed to do, so they will waste a lot more money trying to get it to do something it wasn’t designed to do... and nobody will be held accountable for it.

[miliantnutcase]

Apparently, there is a dollar figure that exceeds the need to help Marines on beaches. But, they will spend billions on dumb crap that someone lobbied more heavily for instead.

[Red Badger]

...and will be obsolete when it’s finally launched.............if ever.............

[Starboard]

+1

Perfect summary.

[ansel12]

“”””Russia spent to kick NATO’s arse all over 2023!””””

Talk about underestimating your enemy, you are wiping out armies, tank columns, air forces, Divisions, navies, and combined forces that haven’t even left home or engaged in a war and doing it in your imagination.

[ansel12]

Yesterday the hypersonic weapons were the new wonder weapon but evidently not for our side, judging by the posts here.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

When I was working at Raytheon I was required to take a 40 hour class, 10 weeks, four hours a week, on my own time, on "System Architecture" taught by two Raytheon geniuses who were the architects of the Zumwalt. It was a painful experience. There were two phased array radars on the Zumwalt, an S-Band built by Lockheed and an X-Band (SPY-3) built by Raytheon. There was a copy of each on Wallops Island, Virginia. The S-Band was boarded up with plywood on both Wallops and the Zumwalt. The Navy had just given up on the S-Band Radar (SPY-4? IDK).

I later work on the USS Ford, which had the SPY-3 and another Lockheed S-Band phased array. I was working in a closed area in Tewksbury Massachusetts, with the Ford in Norfolk and the Zumwalt in San Diego. It seems that SPY-3 on the Zumwalt was not configured the same as on the Ford. We had the unclassified DOORS (like MS Access, but worse) database. No one knew HTF the Zumwalt was configured. We only had one phone in the closed area, that had about 25 desks with people working, and classified and unclassified terminals. I was on an unclassified terminal with the DOORS database opened. Another guy was on the phone to the Zumwalt in San Diego. There were two guys on the Zumwalt, one in the CIC, the other in electronics shelter of the radar, they communicated by headset. They literally buzzed out the interface digitally. The guy in the CIC was set a configuration state, the guy in the electronics shelter would tell him the state of the electronics, and he would relay it over the phone to guy on the phone, who would shout it across the room to me, and I would enter it into DOORS. The Zumwalt and the Ford were not configured identically. A total effing logistical nightmare.

When the Ford was undergoing sea trials the S-Band radar still did not work correctly. The Ford is required to have a working S-Band Radar in order to be certified for Carrier Air Traffic Control. It did not matter if the electromagnetic catapult worked, they could not conduct air operations with an S-Band Radar. I took retirement when they asked me to look at all the old vugraphs to see what promises we (Raytheon) had made to the Navy that were outside the contract. Apparently, and to Raytheon's credit, they intended to keep their promises. If they could remember them all.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

What we need now is a damnedable wsr to get into now....hmmmm....

[sasquatch]

Lipstick on a pig...

[Red Badger]

“The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“...the object of waging a war is always to be in a better position in which to wage another war.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word “war,” therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that is exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and has been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three superstates, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed forever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This—although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense—is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.”
― George Orwell, 1984

[Red Badger]

“Generals always prepare to fight the last war...” - World War I era French Prime Minister, George Clemenceau

[PIF]

... they will spend billions on dumb crap that someone lobbied more heavily for instead.
—

The US Navy & the USAF loves hi-tech toys, whether they work or not, and is will to spend whatever it takes to get them sort of working, even if the end result is not the original mission or intent.

[Jim Noble]

The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive

This sounds like a bad joke.

A new SECDEF cannot come fast enough.

[neverevergiveup]

Looks a little like a Tesla Cyber truck..