Posted on 05/15/2016 7:06:35 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
BATH, Maine (AP) — The U.S. Navy is ready to take ownership of the Zumwalt, its largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyer.
Sailors' uniforms and personal effects, supplies and spare parts are being moved aboard the 610-foot warship in anticipation of crew members taking on their new charge, said Capt. James Kirk, the destroyer's skipper.
The Zumbalt is the first new class of warship built at Bath Iron Works since the Arleigh Burke slid into the Kennebec River in 1989. The shipyard is expected to turn the destroyer over to the Navy this week.
"We've overcome lots of obstacles to get to this point," said electrician John Upham, of Litchfield. "I think everybody in the shipyard is proud of the work we've done."
The ship features an angular shape that makes it 50 times more difficult to detect on radar; it's powered by electricity produced by turbines similar to those in a Boeing 777; new guns are designed to pummel targets from nearly 100 miles away. Advanced automation will allow the big ship to operate with a much smaller crew than on current generation of destroyers.
The final cost of the Zumwalt is expected to be at least $4.4 billion.
The original concept for the land-attack destroyer was floated more than 15 years ago then underwent several permutations. The final design called for a destroyer with a stealthy shape and advanced gun system that can fire rocket-propelled projectiles with pinpoint accuracy.
But the growing cost forced the Navy to reduce what was originally envisioned as a 32-ship program to just three ships. The loss of economies of scale drove up the cost of the individual ships.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
James Kirk? How cool is that?
Just three ships.
We can’t afford the price of these new weapons (ie, the F-35, the new bomber, etc.)
In the end, the US will have a handful of superweapons, while our enemies will have hundreds (or thousands) of attack boats, drones, etc.
“Quantity has a quality all its own.”
The loss of economies of scale drove up the cost of the individual ships.
I guess it just doesn’t occur to them that it would
work the other way round.
We would have lost WW II. at this rate.
It may be a damn big destroyer, but a carrier is a warship and much larger.
Wait a minute...this thing is larger than an aircraft carrier?
“Just three ships.”
The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Marie.
Headline writers never need to worry about facts, or reality, or even contradicting the body of the story itself. Their only job is to increase the number of people reading the first lines of the story.
I was just going to say that :-)
$4 billion for one ship - talk about putting all your eggs in one basket...
the Zumwalt, its largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyer - the least armed capital ship, the most easily sunk capital ship.
The USS Zumwalt is 600 ft long. NImitz class carriers are over 1000 ft long.
“Allah be praised, my brethren! Such a glorious target he has delivered into our hands!”
The picture in the article looks like the Confederate ironclad Merrimac
Reminds me of WW II where Germany had the fancy, best in the world Tigers, but America had the Sherman and lots and lots and lots of them.
We need to back up the few “Big Boys” with a whole lot of little boys. We need more ships to effectively police the seas.
Doesn’t matter to the Brass what these toys cost - they are cool with all sorts of deficiencies in their respective commands as long as they have the bragging rights to these neat toys. Having toys is what counts, winning wars no so much. You don’t get invited to the best parties just for winning a war, now having a cool toy that’s different.
It is their money not yours, so pay up and be silent - like a good civilian.
I've said the exact same thing. America has the most expensive (and most rigid and bureaucratic) government in the world. Defense procurement is at the top of the government cost pinnacle.
President Thomas Whitmore: I don’t understand, where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?
Julius Levinson: You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?
If America ever finds itself fighting a real war and doesn’t get defeated immediately, it’s going to have to wipe out the military-industrial complex and start from scratch. There will be a lot of well paid grifters hanging from trees.
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