Navy poised to take ownership of its largest destroyer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Early morning sun shined on the Zumwalt at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on Thursday. The shipyard will soon hand over the largest missile destroyer to the Navy.
BATH, Maine » 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.
The slow-going and rising costs were little surprise after the General Accounting Office warned that the Navy was trying to incorporate too many new technologies into the ship.
“Zumwalt was a challenge to assemble because of all the new technologies, but sea trials show it is a world-class warship with unique capabilities,” said Loren Thompson, senior defense analyst with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.
Some of the ship’s 143 crew members have been in Bath for more than two years to prepare for the day they take control of it. The sailors will continue training to prepare the ship to be formally commissioned into service as USS Zumwalt at a ceremony in October in Baltimore, Kirk said. From there, the ship will travel to its homeport in San Diego for further tests and trials.
Shipbuilders in Bath are busy on the second ship in the class, the Michael Monsoor, which will be christened next month. Work also is underway on the third and final ship, the Lyndon B. Johnson.
Jay Wadleigh, president of the largest union at the shipyard, said Bath Iron Works was selected for the job because the Navy knew it would be done right.
“I think the way the Zumwalt performed on the three different sea trials was better than anybody expected — us, the Navy and the company,” he said.
17 responses to “Navy poised to take ownership of its largest destroyer”
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Dear SA: “Zumbalt” Seriously? Spell-check is not the same as actually editing. I used to tell 9th graders to read what they had written. If it made no sense to them, it would make no sense to anyone else either.
Had the same thoughts but saw the AP wrote the story and the SA just posted it. Pretty pathetic that both the AP and the SA missed this error and other in the story too!
S-A doesn’t read the AP stories it prints. Too much trouble.
That’s what you get when you “Cut and Paste”! Way to go SA!!!
Largest ship that the Navy has? Better do some fact-checking on the displacement of this vessel versus that of aircraft carriers.
Well, clarification or a correction of sorts can be read in the first paragraph.
“Capt. James Kirk, the destroyer’s skipper” – Is this the guy that commanded the Starship enterprise? Just joking, but it is an interesting fact.
“Capt. James Kirk, the destroyer’s skipper” it’s too good to believe.LOL!
upon leaving the dock:
“one quarter impulse power Mr. Sulu”
Yep…an overpaid HPD or rail PR firm couldn’t have done better than this.
Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not an engineer
Just don’t wear a red shirt…
The USS Zumwalt is no where near the Navy’s largest warship. Any nuclear aircraft carrier is larger in length and displacement. It is the Navy’s largest destroyer.
As usual, newspaper staff is filled by people who are not well-read and are ignoramuses about the military.
“…its largest and most technologically sophisticated DESTROYER.” Got it now?!!
“But the growing cost forced the Navy to reduce what was originally envisioned as a 32-ship program to just three ships.” Another example of obama’s vision from within his, umm, large intestine. Yup, the world has proven to be an increasingly peaceful place, eh? See what his World Apology Tour got us? A more clueless and incompetent “Commander-in-Chief” could not even be imagined.
You could be commander-in-chief and then you’d find your more incompetent individual, or just look in the mirror.
Some ideologues will seize any opportunity, no matter how picayune, to take mindless cheap shots at our President. Did you even bother to read the article with comprehension? Each of these babies costs in the neighborhood of $4.4 Billion because they tried to pack every new cutting-edge technology into them. They were conceived and ordered during Baby Bush’s administration, and the cost effectiveness just isn’t there any more. That’s why they cut the order down to three.
In this age of cruise missiles, even stealth surface ships like the Zumwalt are in very perilous positions. Any idea what a couple of cruise missiles cost? A fraction of a percent of $4.4 Billion. These ships aren’t precisely gold-plated sitting ducks, but they’re not too far from it. And when was the last time our surface ships were actually involved in a naval battle? It’s damned difficult to make the case for a big Navy in 2016, and with good reason. But “reason” is a word unknown to the likes of you.
Nice looking tub.