Hull Speed: 28 knots
Top Speed: 45 knots
Posted on 10/24/2020 8:49:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The US Navy destroyer USS Zumwalt fired a missile for the first time during a recent weapons test, the Navy announced Monday.
The Zumwalt, a first-in-class stealth destroyer, test-fired an SM-2 missile from the ship's launcher last Tuesday at the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range in Point Mugu, California.
The Zumwalt was commissioned in 2016, but it was not delivered to the Navy with a functional combat system until earlier this year.
While the Zumwalt program has faced a number of significant setbacks, including cost overruns and major delays, a big issue was the ship's main guns — the two 155mm guns of the Advanced Gun System.
When the Navy reduced its order from roughly thirty ships to just three, the cost of the rounds shot up. A single round of the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile was going to cost almost $1 million — a figure closer to guided missiles than artillery shells.
And that wasn't the only problem with the guns. Vice Adm. William Merz, then the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems, told Congress in 2018 that the guns also lacked the desired range. "We just cannot get the thing to fly as far as we want," he said, adding that the Navy was considering getting rid of the guns altogether.
The Navy was ultimately forced to reevaluate the combat system and change the ship's mission. Instead of naval fire support for ground units, the ship has been retasked to an anti-ship combat role.
In May, following the destroyer's delivery to the fleet, the Zumwalt test-fired the 30 mm mark 46 MOD 2 Gun Weapon System, a remotely-operated, high-velocity naval cannon for taking out small, high-speed surface threats, for the first time.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Two things a submariner won’t tell you: how fast his sub can go and its crush depth.
The speed of a displacement ship such as this destroyer is limited by it’s speed length ratio (SLR). The hull design engineers create a hull form to mimic a longer hull.
If sufficient power is applied to make a vessel rise on plane then the S/L ration does not limit the speed.
A high powered tug with power way beyond it’s S/L ratio will not go up on a plane because of it’s hull design and may well actually go slower at full power due to the enormous waves created.
“Displacement vessels (ships, sailboats) are limited in speed by the length of their water line”
Horsepower can overcome this ‘limit’.
I was counting on a correction since that was only a layman’s guess.
“how fast can a nuclear sub go”
Copy and google it.
Only 80 VLS tubes.
A new Burke DDG has at least 96, comes in at 10,000 tons and is proven.
The Zumwalt was intended as an R&D platform.
Look for learnings to be added to the planned Large Surface Combatant.
In the mean time we’ll keep building the Burke Flight IIIa. And a bunch are funded.
Looks like the Obama/Biden DOD did what they consider to be an effective job on the Zumwalt.
Their Chinese/Russian/Iranian masters are very pleased with what their money has bought.
No, horse power can’t on a displacement vessel. At least not without sinking.
Ooops, times like this is when I wish we had a delete. You are correct about hp and hull speed. I mis remembered what I was taught many years ago. Oh well.
Hull Speed: 28 knots
Top Speed: 45 knots
Fantasque!
Funny, part of the ship in some views looks cartoonish.
Got any ammo for that fancy gun yet?
I’ve heard nuclear aircraft carriers can top out at about 60 mph. Crazy if true.
Chunk the 155s overboard and slot in some smaller, proven 5” guns. Or figure out if some army 155s can be made salt water resistant at a reasonable cost (probably not).
Submarines used to submerge with exposed 4 and 5 inch guns with no issue. Some US subs even had 6’ (152 mm) deck guns. Japanese used 5.5 inch guns (140 mm) on their subs. Conditions on the Zums can’t be any worse.
The problem doesn’t really seem so hard to solve. Someone didn’t want a solution.
I’ve heard stories the old Enterprise CVN-65 could flat out leave anything afloat in its wake she was so fast.
I believe that as they go faster, they begin to pitch down at the bow., increasing drag.
When I have built failures I don’t get paid. Why have we paid for this if it doesn’t work?
It depends on whether they are in hard water or soft water.
Assuming you mean supercavitation then it's been used on torpedoes and there have been tests done on larger underwater craft. Problem with it is that it's noisy. A submarine using supercavitation would be instantly detectable by any sonar system for hundreds of miles and the noise it generates would blind its own sonar.
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