Free Republic

Photos at link. With slick sides and sharp angles, the Michael Monsoor and its sister ship Zumwalt cut a distinct silhouette along the waters of San Diego. Unlike a nearby aircraft carrier whose radar juts into the air, the Monsoor’s composite material deckhouse is polygonal and covered with material that can absorb radar waves and increase the destroyer’s stealthiness. Its “tumblehome” hull looks like something you’d see on a ship built before World War I. Make no mistake, the Monsoor guided-missile destroyer — named after Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor, who grew up in Garden Grove and died in 2006...

BATH, Maine (AP) — The mother of a fallen Navy SEAL christened the second Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer Saturday in honor of her son, who died in Iraq when he threw himself on an insurgent's grenade to save the lives of two fellow SEALS. The 610-foot, 15,000-ton ship, built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works for the U.S. Navy, was named for Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor. The 25-year-old California native died in 2006 and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. "May God bless this ship, and all who sail within her," said Sally Monsoor before smashing a...

Bath, Maine — The largest destroyer built for the U.S. Navy cuts an imposing figure: massive, with an angular shape, hidden weapons and antennas, and electric-drive propulsion. But underneath the stealthy exterior resides a style of hull that fell out of favor a century ago in part because it can be unstable. The Navy will soon learn how this modern take on the “tumblehome” hull holds up when the first-in-class Zumwalt heads out to sea in December for builder trials in the rough-and-tumble North Atlantic. Amy Lent, of the Maine Maritime Museum, which works closely with the shipyard, said taxpayers...

Tewksbury MA (SPX) Dec 15, 2006 Raytheon DDG 1000 Ship Control System Navigation System Component team successfully completed a design review at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems' Expeditionary Warfare Center (EWC) in San Diego, Calif. The current DDG 1000 Ship Control System design baseline was found to be mature, and Raytheon received authorization to proceed with the system's detailed design. Achieving this milestone was the result of close collaboration between the Raytheon EWC team and U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Systems Center-San Diego (SSC-SD) systems engineering, hardware engineering and specialty engineering teams. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems is the...