Posted on 02/01/2019 11:19:17 AM PST by Steven Scharf
Navy struggles to find a place for Bath-built Zumwalt stealth destroyers
The Zumwalts were built for a mission that the Navy no longer views as a priority.
BY NATHAN STROUT BRUNSWICK TIMES RECORD Friday, February 1, 2019
BRUNSWICK — To those who kept a close eye on the development of the Navy’s futuristic, next-generation destroyers, calling the Zumwalt-class program a disappointment could be an understatement.
In the early 2000s, the Navy hoped to build 32 highly advanced stealth destroyers built solely at Bath Iron Works. BIW employees were hopeful that the new destroyers would be a source of work for years to come. As the years wore on, the number of ships ordered were slashed. And then slashed again. Ultimately, the Navy ordered just three ships — the second of which was recently commissioned by the Navy in San Diego.
With the USS Zumwalt, the lead ship of the class, expected to not be deployed until 2021, it remains to be seen whether the destroyers will be an effective tool in the Navy’s arsenal, or an expensive cautionary tale.
Bath Iron Works declined to comment on the Zumwalts’ mission or decisions made by the Navy.
In some ways, the Zumwalt can be seen as a casualty of the uncertainty facing the military following the end of the Cold War.
. . .
The ships have already demonstrated the effectiveness of some impressive new technologies. The ships show up as just a fraction of their 610-foot size on a radar, thanks to their stealth design. Their all-electric propulsion system is a first in the Navy, and could very well be adopted in future ships.
. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
Oh yeah, real soon now.... /sarc
Is this Bath, Maine?
Pictures I’ve seen of them they are white in color. The obvious place would be in the arctic where their color would greatly assist in adverting eyesight from flyover and satellite and their stealth capacity would make radar contact sketchy at best. And I didn’t graduate in the top ten in my class.
Everyone knows they are in existence. And if you are going to store something like this, why not put it where it can be serviced and kept ready better like the ship yards at Norfork. Va. Currently, the shipyard is composed of several noncontiguous areas totaling 1,275 acres (5.16 km2). Norfolk Naval Shipyard provides repair and modernization services for every type of ship that the U.S. Navy has in service, which includes amphibious vessels, submarines, guided missile cruisers, and supercarriers, although in recent years the shipyard has primarily focused on nuclear ships and nuclear support ships. They are even one of the few yards that can dry dock a nuclear carrier. You can’t hide something like this so why try?
rwood
And it was a bit goofy looking, too, but...it had that same rectangular white superstructure feature that the USS Enterprise had before her refit that made her look like other carriers...so they always showed the two of them cruising together...for show.
BAE Systems Arlington VA. A US firm.
Aren't guns supposed to smoke?
Assign a couple to the coast guard and station these in the Caribbean for drug interdiction efforts. We can also assign them to our shipping lanes to protect our supply chains and prevent piracy of our ships.
It was the guided missile electronics and stuff in the mast cube that doomed her. One look at the ship and most people would say, “Top heavy?” And how.
In even moderate seas she rolled so badly there would be footprints on the bulkheads from sailors having to abandon the deck momentarily to walk.
The solution to this was to pull tons of lead along her keel. This stabilized her, but made her weight so much, she could not go fast enough to fulfill her role in the fleet.
The Long Beach spent her remaining days hugging the shore.
I had a friend in the radio shack of the Long Beach who took me on a tour of her at the Norfolk NOB. She was gorgeous.
Stop! Stop!
“Sir, we let out the white smoke on this Lucas rocker switch...does that count towards the effective round? It only costs $225, so we could burn one for each round fired!”
Of course she was gorgeous...she was a show boat!
I looked the admiral up on wikipedia..didnt see anything too bad about him. Why was he a disaster?
University of Texas Researchers Aim For Electromagnetic Railgun
L.P. I think you have some exposure to his subject. Any thoughts?
It is to Zumwalt we owe disasters like the destroyers (”manned” with women) colliding at sea. Due to his many “innovations” Naval personnel have become feminized and sisified.
Were he alive today, he’d be voting with the “social justic warrior” democrats.
Yes
“pentagon Wars” all over again. The quotes from admiral richardson sound like a script made for kelsey grammer and richard benjamin.
And the reason we should agree to fork over more dollars to even less responsible gubment pigs is??????
Absolutely. He destroyed Navy traditions to be modern and fashionable. The Navy is still suffering from his command time.
I don’t know, what you said sounded like it could be true, but she did deploy quite a bit...and was the first ship to shoot down an airplane with a SAM.
They did quite a bit of renovation on her, too.
I must say, I thought she was very odd looking, but when you view her broadside, she isn’t bad looking.
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