US Navy poised to take ownership of its largest warship (USS Zumwalt)

Associated Press ^ | May 15, 2016 | DAVID SHARP

[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.

[PapaBear3625]

Having small numbers of sophisticated weapons means that most of the cost is in the R&D, not in manufacturing. This means that (1) there is more room for graft, and (2) people can leak the technology to our enemies for $$$.

When the emphasis is on making large quantities of high-quality weapons, there are fewer money-making opportunities for the big boys. The production gets divided up among multiple companies by competitive bid, and the real valuable information is in techniques for ensuring quality in a cost-effective way, which is less easy to steal.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Capt. James Kirk. You can't make this stuff up.

Wonder what his middle name is.

[null and void]

Yeah. The M4 Sherman Ronson: “Lights First Every Time”.

And still, we overwhelmed the Krauts.

[SandRat]

Will the crew wear STARFFLEET uniforms and insignia? Afterall, they'll be serving under Capt. KIRK???

[SandRat]

I’ve been waiting for that.

[Dalberg-Acton]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2876637/posts

[EnigmaticAnomaly]

You just have to wonder if they will be given red shirts. :-)

[SandRat]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3430738/posts

[Leaning Right]

Russians also had a lot of quality tanks.

Sounds like Soviet propaganda right there, pal.

Just kidding. You're right. The T-34 in particular was a good tank. One problem the Germans had was that they fiddled around with many different designs with complicated mechanics, instead of picking one and mass-producing it. A mass-produced simplified Panther would have been a game-changer (or should I say, a game-delayer).

[ameribbean expat]

Been a concern since 2002.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/washington/12navy.html?_r=0

[moose07]

Rough Seas cause the Cloaking device to automatically kick in.

[9422WMR]

Hell of a target there boys!!! Let’s put a round through that barn section in the middle!!

[SaraJohnson]

At least they did not name the ship “Hot Pants.”

[Chuckster]

A destroyer is our “Largest warship”?

[Don W]

Another problem nobody is talking about is the reduced crew size.

Sure, fewer crew makes it far cheaper to keep a ship in the water during peacetime, but when the excrement hits the ventilator, you need twice as many folks aboard so the ship can continue fighting while damage control is in process.

The bullets don’t stop flying while you’re trying to keep the ship afloat, and you can’t fight if the crew is all shoring bulkheads and patching holes.

[Mollypitcher1]

Sherman’s major fault was poor armor. BUT the Sherman was easy to fix and put back in the field again. Germany’s monsters required too much tech. support.

[Mollypitcher1]

Looks more like a submarine than a surface vessel.

[Mollypitcher1]

I guess in one way or the other it lives up to it’s tag of TIN CAN!

[Bshaw]

If the images posted are accurate, am I missing the Phalanx systems? I don’t see any.

[kabar]

Looks like they have it, i.e., advanced gun system.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer is a class of United States Navy guided missile destroyers designed as multi-mission stealth ships with a focus on land attack. The class emerged from the previous DD-21 vessel program. The program was previously known as the "DD(X)". The class is multi-role and designed for surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare, and naval gunfire support. They take the place of battleships in filling the former congressional mandate for naval fire support, though the requirement was reduced to allow them to fill this role. The vessels' appearance has been compared to that of the historic ironclad warship.

The lead ship is named Zumwalt for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, and carries the hull number DDG-1000. Originally 32 ships were planned, with the $9.6 billion research and development costs spread across the class, but the quantity was reduced to 24, then to 7, and finally to 3, greatly increasing the cost-per-ship.