US Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class
- Thread starter Scratch
- Start date
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Latest picture of the USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000. Both 155mm advanced gun systems are evident here. Outfitting continues.
She's a beaut' and she and her sisters are going to be game changers.
Jeff, do you think leaving out the ciws or any sort of active last ditch defensive counter measures a mistake in hindsight?
Quon_Duixote
New Member
Pardon my ignorance, but is there a study somewhere on the utility of stealth for a destroyer the size of Zumwalt? I somehow fail to connect the dots here. No matter the reduction in RCS but one thing which puts the Zumwalt at a disadvantage is that it is a 14000+ ton behemoth which can be seen over the horizon by a small OPV with anti ship missiles. Now the question is can the Zumwalt hold its own against a fast moving littoral attack force including OPVs, FACs etc?
Well, the two 57mm guns are supposed to be able to be used for CIWS, and they can load up a lot of ESSMs in the PVLS cells for air defense too.
Once the rail guns technology arrives (and this will be in the relative near future), using smaller rail guns for CIWS in place of the 57mm guns would be ideal for close in support, out to the horizon.
The US Navy and Bath Iron Works has taken GREAT pains to enhance the stealth of the ZUmwalt Class.
Every single piece of equipment or sensor that can possibly be done so is hidden within the vessel and either comes out from behind its hidden area with doors, or is melded into the form of the ship. This includes all of her Peripheral Vertical Launch (PVLS) tubes for the various missiles.
Even the guns, all of them...the two 155mm AGS main weapons and the two 57mm secondary battery use stealth cuploas where there barrells are hidden until used for firing.
And all of this in addition the overall design of her hull.
She will be as sleek and unencumbered a large combatant vessel as ever sailed the seven seas.
Every single piece of equipment or sensor that can possibly be done so is hidden within the vessel and either comes out from behind its hidden area with doors, or is melded into the form of the ship. This includes all of her Peripheral Vertical Launch (PVLS) tubes for the various missiles.
Even the guns, all of them...the two 155mm AGS main weapons and the two 57mm secondary battery use stealth cuploas where there barrells are hidden until used for firing.
And all of this in addition the overall design of her hull.
She will be as sleek and unencumbered a large combatant vessel as ever sailed the seven seas.
Jura The idiot
General
shen
Senior Member
ironically the stealth requirement is what drove Zumwalt to its behemoths size.
First, all weapons, equipments and sensors need to enclosed. you need bigger hull volume in order to accommodate everything that would normally be topside.
Second, every surface on the Zumwalts is carefully angle to reflect radar energy away from the emitter. but ships roll in the sea. if Zumwalt rolls too much, some angled surface becomes perpendicular surface again, thus negative the stealthy design. Therefore to increase stability, there are two enormous ballast water tanks deep in the hull, again increasing hull volume.