USS Zumwalt, the world’s first purpose-built stealth destroyer, will join the rest of the U.S. Navy in “days.”

The ship was designed in the late 2000s for a mission that was obsolete by the time it was commissioned.

Instead of bombarding targets on land, the Zumwalt will take on the role of stealthy ship-killer.

The stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt is almost ready for action, three and a half years after it was commissioned into the U.S. Navy. The first-of-its-kind warship transformed from a ship designed to provide gunfire support for U.S. Marine landings to one designed to range across oceans and engage enemy fleets with long range missiles. In the meantime, the ship’s two 155-millimeter guns—the reason why they were built in the first place—are still without ammunition.

USS Zumwalt was supposed to be the first of new generation of U.S. Navy destroyers. Each ship of the Zumwalt class (there were supposed to be 32 of them) would be fitted with two 155-millimeter Advanced Gun Systems, each capable of engaging targets with precision-guided shells at ranges of up to 60 miles. In wartime, the destroyers would creep close to enemy coastlines and then bombard targets in the path of an amphibious assault, softening up hostile defenses. The destroyers were designed to be stealthy and feature a knife-like profile that allegedly gives the 600-foot-long warship the radar signature of a fishing boat.

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Unfortunately, the ships ran into rough seas before even hitting the water. Technical difficulties and cost overruns boosted the cost of the program, and the Navy ultimately decided to trim the class from 32 to just three ships. Meanwhile the Long Range Land Attack Projectile, the precision guided shell that would arm the ship’s guns, ballooned in price from $50,000 a round to $800,000. The Navy canceled LRLAP but pushed ahead to complete the three authorized ships—at a total cost of $23 billion.

Now, according to Defense News, USS Zumwalt is almost ready for war , with its new combat suite on track to be delivered “within days.” The lack of ammunition for the ship’s guns meant it could no longer fulfill the land attack mission, and the ship was in danger of becoming the white elephant of the fleet. The Navy changed the ship’s mission to a stealthy ship-killer.

Handout Getty Images

The Zumwalt-class destroyers—in addition to their two 155-millimeter guns—are each equipped with 80 Mk. 57 vertical launch systems built into the sides of the hull. Each Mk. 57 can carry a single SM-2 or SM-6 long range surface-to-air missile, ASROC anti-submarine rocket torpedo, or up to four Evolved Sea Sparrow short-range surface to air missiles. Importantly, they can also carry the Tomahawk land attack cruise missile.



The rise of the Chinese Navy caught the U.S. Navy without an effective long range anti-ship missile, and the service scrambled to catch up. One result is a new version of the Tomahawk missile, Block V, also known as Maritime Strike Tomahawk . Most Navy warships, including destroyers, cruisers, and submarines, carry Tomahawk missiles as part of their missile inventories. Block V capabilities include the ability to change targets in mid-flight via satellite, target moving enemy ships at sea, and the new Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System . The Navy will convert all of its Tomahawks to the Block V configuration, enabling all ships already carrying the land attack version to now carry the ship-killing variant.

Here's a Tomahawk missile launching from a silo on a Burke-class destroyer:

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The Zumwalt destroyers only have 80 missile silos, ten less than the older Burke-class destroyers and 42 less than the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers. A potential war load for the ships could be 30 Maritime Strike Tomahawks, 30 SM-6 and SM-2 missiles for long range air defense, 5 anti-submarine torpedo rockets, and 60 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles for short range defense.

In wartime, the Zumwalts would use their stealth to evade enemy sensors, setting up a long range ambush of enemy ships—particularly China’s new aircraft carriers. Maritime Strike Tomahawks have a range of 900 miles and that capability, paired with the radar signature of a fishing boat, will make the Zumwalts a difficult threat to defend against. The Zumwalt affair is a sad, tortuous, and expensive debacle even by American standards, but at least we’re finally getting a (mostly) useful ship out of it.

Source: Defense News

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