Stealth destroyer to be home for 1st hypersonic weapon on a US warship

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

November 30, 2024, 12:05 AM


The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers.

The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship.

“It was a costly blunder but the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production. Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added maneuverability making them harder to shoot down.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/stealth-destroyer-home-1st-hypersonic-weapon-us-warship-116331558

[Dennis Donovan]

1. The USS Zumwalt is a guided missile destroyer - stealthy & freaky-looking

[Silent Type]

2. Looks like a Civil War ironclad. Although, I'm sure the technology today is advanced.

[jmowreader]

14. True story...

The Navy calls the members of the first crew a ship has when it is placed in commission Plankowners.

The plankowner captain of USS Zumwalt is - this is no shit - Capt. James Kirk.

[MaineBlueBear]

3. Sounds like they're using the space

That was reserved for the rail gun developed by BASF.

[Angleae]

8. Close. They're removing the AGS guns that were installed but not used because of ammo cost.

[Igel]

10. And there's top-notch military planning.

Let's pay a lot of money for research, design, and build out, and then find we can't actually afford to use it.

Somebody probably got a promotion for that.

[MaineBlueBear]

11. Here it is

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/05/us-navy-discloses-155mm-advanced-gun-systems-preliminary-fate/

The number of ships went from 32 to 3 so the cost per projectile soared to over $800K.

[Traildogbob]

4. Destroyer Sailor here.

Ops Specialist. These ships are getting bad ass—-er.
A bumper sticker I see on the same car every trip to the VA:
“God created all men equal, then be made destroyer Sailors”.
Tried like hell to find one.

[dlk]

5. Here you go

https://www.destroyers.org/product/all-men-are-created-equal-bumper-sticker/

[Traildogbob]

6. DAMN!!!!!

Thank you so freaking much!!!! dIK
You rock. The happiest I have been in a long time now.
Bless you, cheers and may your holidays bring you love and wealth.
Putting in an order to my daughter for 3 of them. For truck, guitar case and music stand. Maybe ask for 4 and put one on my forehead.
Thank you thank you, I live this place. DU Rocks.
😍😍😍😍😍

[dlk]

7. My pleasure

When I was first married, my ex-husband was stationed on a tin can at Pearl. He was stationed on a destroyer before we were married. Happy to help.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season. Go Navy!

[FredGarvin]

9. $8,000,000,000,000.00 per Zumwalt ship

Nice to see it being retrofitted

[FBaggins]

12. Not quite that much

That's close to a decade's worth of the entire US military budget.

You need to drop three zeros

[DFW]

13. I was at both the christening and the commissioning of that ship.

The Zumwalt family are friends of ours (our daughters were at each other’s weddings, etc.).

We got to hang with Captain James Kirk (no “T” sorry), and tour the ship.

The cost overruns for the whole program were obscene, but since they were built, it would be nice if they came close to having the effectiveness they were designed for.

At the christening, one of the best speeches was given by Senator Angus King. He said that the best outcome of having a ship with all that advanced weaponry would be if it would serve as a deterrent, and the most destructive weapons aboard never had to actually be used against anybody.

I can't believe this was ten years ago already!