Posted on 04/12/2012 9:12:12 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The $7 billion dollar warship being built to maintain American naval supremacy over China in the 21st Century
One of the largest, most expensive and advanced warships ever commissioned for the U.S Navy is taking shape at Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine.
Named the U.S.S Zumwalt, the $7 billion guided-missile destroyer is at the cutting edge of technology and now deemed vital for defence following President Obama's Asia-Pacific pivot.
Featuring a radical wave-piercing hull known as a 'tumblehome', the odd looking ship incorporates stealth technology that makes the 600-foot, 14,500 ton warship seem like a fishing vessel to enemy radar.
An artist rendering of the USS Zumwalt class destroyer which will be one of the more heavily armed and expensive ships in the U.S Navy
Fitted with diagonally launching missile tubes as opposed to traditional vertical tubes and carrying deck-guns that fire rocket propelled warheads 100 miles, the Zumwalt will be a formidable beast.
Even though it is the largest destroyer the U.S Navy has built in years it will have half the crew because of the extensive automation of systems on the ship.
With 32 ships originally envisioned for the class, that was lowered after a government review to 24, then to seven and eventually shot down to just three.
One of the reasons for this is the prohibitive cost of the Zumwalt class.
On paper each of the powerful vessels costs $3.8 billion a piece, but with research and development costs thrown in the full bill is nearer to $7 billion.
The 600-foot-long ships are so large and complicated to build that General Dynamics, who
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What you get for $7 billion dollars: A guide to the USS Zumwalt's unique features
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2128986/The-7-billion-dollar-warship-built-maintain-American-naval-supremacy-China-21st-Century.html#ixzz1rtFfIQXL
This is little more than a silly-assed waste of money when good designs are available NOW at $500mil a copy.
Of course if you build more of them, then you amortize the R&D costs over more ships and the per-ship cost goes back down.
I hope we build more than the three. The decision to cut the numbers drastically is why the cost has run up. A lot of new expensive technology now spread out over only three ships.
Bath Iron works does good work, but Maine is an expensive place to perform work.
I’d bet this Collins/Snowe boondoggle
If conceived under the Obama administration then you can bet it’s a design that came straight from China.
Looks like an Ironclad from the Civil War.
Not a word about its means of propulsion. Nuke?
Dang. I’m glad it has radar and a hull.
Does it submerge? Seriously, from an angle the hull form of that beast tends to remind me of an old fleet boat somehow.
Propulsion: All-electric Drive with (IPS), 2 Rolls-Royce MT30 Gas Turbines 36MW, 2 shafts
Speed: 30 knots
Yes, let’s build a fantastically expensive piece of military hardware (even though we’re functionally broke as a nation) only to have it taken out by the naval equivalent of an improvised roadside bomb. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Sheesh, that is odd looking.
It almost looks submersible.
How does this thing protect itself? Will it be so expensive that the Navy won’t risk deploying them for fear they might lose one?
I would prefer the menace of Submarines for that price. ;)
Long Live Electric Boat!
“If conceived under the Obama administration then you can bet it’s a design that came straight from China.”
It reads better like this: If conceived under the Obama administration, you can bet its design went straight to China.”
“it will have half the crew”
I read the book `Das Boot’ and there the U-boat commander wishes he didn’t need a crew, that it was just him against another captain.
It’s an expensive target.
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