US Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class

FORBIN said:

Scandalous price ! for 4 billions $ you get easy 2 Burke and for 3 Zumwalt, 7 Burke ! and yet some in service now in more
But i suspect canceled the deal would have cost more and Navy have a hull for a next cruiser

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The future USS Zumwalt is so stealthy that it'll go to sea with reflective material that can be hoisted to make it more visible to other ships.

The Navy destroyer is designed to look like a much smaller vessel on radar, and it lived up to its billing during recent builder trials.

Lawrence Pye, a lobsterman, told The Associated Press that on his radar screen the 610-foot ship looked like a 40- to 50-foot fishing boat. He watched as the behemoth came within a half-mile while returning to shipbuilder Bath Iron Works.

"It's pretty mammoth when it's that close to you," Pye said.

Despite its size, the warship is 50 times harder to detect than current destroyers thanks to its angular shape and other design features, and its stealth could improve even more once testing equipment is removed, said Capt. James Downey, program manager.

During sea trials last month, the Navy tested Zumwalt's radar signature with and without reflective material hoisted on its halyard, he said. The goal was to get a better idea of exactly how stealthy the ship really is, Downey said from Washington, D.C.

The reflectors, which look like metal cylinders, have been used on other warships and will be standard issue on the Zumwalt and two sister ships for times when stealth becomes a liability and they want to be visible on radar, like times of fog or heavy ship traffic, he said.

The possibility of a collision is remote. The Zumwalt has sophisticated radar to detect vessels from miles away, allowing plenty of time for evasive action.

But there is a concern that civilian mariners might not see it during bad weather or at night, and the reflective material could save them from being startled.

The destroyer is unlike anything ever built for the Navy.

Besides a shape designed to deflect enemy radar, it features a wave-piercing "tumblehome" hull, composite deckhouse, electric propulsion and new guns.

More tests will be conducted when the ship returns to sea later this month for final trials before being delivered to the Navy. The warship is due to be commissioned in October in Baltimore, and will undergo more testing before becoming fully operational in 2018.

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Hyperwarp said:

Has the USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000 made most current Anti-Ship missiles obsolete? I don't see how the small active-radar seekers being able to lock on to this thing until maybe it comes really close. IIR based systems like Kongsberg NSM might fare better, but hmmmmm.......this ship is going to cause a lot of headaches.

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General Dynamics Corp.’s stealthy, electric-powered destroyer for the U.S. Navy will be delivered almost three years late, according to the Pentagon’s latest schedule.

The Navy now estimates delivery of the DDG-1000, the first of three Zumwalt-class vessels in a $22.4 billion program, by midyear, according to the Defense Department’s annual “Selected Acquisition Report” on the program. In 2010, the delivery was projected for September 2013 and last year for November 2015.

With its inverted bow and profile meant to reduce the ship’s cross-section to radar, the DDG-1000 is intended for multiple missions, including land attacks. The vessels, named after the late Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, are made by General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works unit in Bath, Maine. Raytheon Co., based in Waltham, Massachusetts, provides the vessel’s combat electronics.


The cumulative delays “are due to overall effects of shipyard production and test challenges,” according to the report sent to Congress last month and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Lucy Ryan, a spokeswoman for Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics, said in an e-mail that the company had no comment on the delays.

Combat Capability
In addition to the late delivery, the DDG-1000 isn’t expected to be declared to have an initial combat capability until December 2019, more than four years later than the Navy projected in 2010 and more than a year later than estimated last year, based on a comparison of the latest annual Pentagon report with past editions.

The Navy is updating its acquisition benchmarks for the program, including cost and schedule milestones, according to the report. “The DDG-1000 will begin acceptance trials later this month, and the ship is on track for commissioning on Oct. 15, 2016,” Captain Thurraya Kent, a Navy spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that didn’t address the delays.

After the ship is commissioned, it will transit to San Diego to have its combat mission systems activated, she said.

One of the biggest contributors to the delays is the complexity of activating the ship’s integrated power system, according to the Pentagon report. The ship will use electricity generated by gas turbines to power all of its systems, including weapons, according to a Navy fact sheet.

The vessel is larger than any Navy destroyer or cruiser since the nuclear-powered USS Long Beach bought in 1957, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is also “much more” stealthy than earlier Navy surface combat ships, CRS analyst Ron O’Rourke, told Bloomberg.

The $22.4 billion estimated cost includes development of what originally was intended to be a 10-ship program.

Procurement Cost
The procurement cost of the three ships is an estimated $13.2 billion, including $3.8 billion for the DDG-1000, $2.8 billion for the second vessel and $2.4 billion for the third, Kent said. The balance of the $13.2 billion includes one-time expenditures that apply to all three vessels, outfitting and post-delivery costs, she said.

The program’s procurement cost increased by about $450 million last year due to the “effect of shipyard production and test challenges,” the report said.

The new destroyer’s Advanced Gun System from London-based BAE Systems Plc has two 155mm guns capable of firing precision projectiles 63 nautical miles (73 miles) inland. The vessel will carry a crew of 142, down from about 300 on the Navy’s Aegis destroyers and cruisers, producing savings in personnel costs.

“Skilled labor shortages at Bath Iron Works contributed to the cost increases, but they were only one factor among several resulting in the rise” for “the most advanced warship ever built,” Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute. Thompson follows the Zumwalt class for his consulting client General Dynamics, which also contributes to the Arlington, Virginia-based institute, he said in an e-mail.

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USNI said:

The guided missile destroyer Zumwalt (DDG-1000) left the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard for its acceptance trials ahead of delivery to the U.S. Navy, the service announced on Wednesday.

This morning, the 16,000-ton warship transited down the Kennebec River to the Atlantic Ocean for the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) evaluation before the ship’s anticipated delivery to the service in May.

“While underway, many of the ship’s key systems and technologies including navigation, propulsion readiness, auxiliary systems, habitability, fire protection and damage control capabilities will be demonstrated to ensure they meet the Navy’s requirements,” read a statement from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

In March, Bath took the ship out

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to test the ship’s hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) systems.

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, “representatives from BIW, PCU Zumwalt, the Navy’s Program Office, SUPSHIP Bath and various technical subject matter experts, including Raytheon personnel, tested several ship systems including key propulsion and auxiliary systems as well as boat operations,” read a March statement provided to USNI News by the service.
The acceptance trails will only focus on Zumwalt’s HM&E system that are based on a first-in-concept Integrated Power System. The IPS combines the output of two Rolls Royce MT-30 gas turbine engines, along with diesel generators, to power a ship wide electrical grid. Instead of a direct mechanical connection to the ships props, the IPS powers large electrical induction motors that propel the ship through the water.

The complexity of constructing and testing the IPS is the primary cause for the schedule of the ship to slip several months from its original anticipated delivery date.

Following delivery, Zumwalt will transit to San Diego, Calif. where it will be outfitted with the remainder of its combat system – in part – to free up space at Bath for the construction of the two follow-on ships Michael Moonsor (DDG-1001) and Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) and Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) guided missile destroyers.

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