Now, something similar is happening on a smaller scale. The USS Zumwalt is on its first operational
voyage which appears to be a public relations tour and an attempt to introduce
the Zumwalt to the world.
Here’s the Zumwalt’s mini-tour, thus far.
8-Mar-2019 Departed
San Diego
11-Mar-2019 Esquimalt,
British Columbia, Canada23-Mar-2019 Ketchikan, Alaska
4-Apr-2019 Pearl Harbor
Zumwalt is, presumably, conducting live fire exercises at
the naval range in Hawaii.
As a reminder, the total Zumwalt program cost is $8.4B per
ship and continuing to climb as the remaining two ships work to complete
construction and fitting out of combat systems.
The ship’s reason for being, the Advanced Gun System (AGS), has been
rendered non-functional due to the Navy cancelling the Long Range Land Attack
Projectile (LRLAP), the only munition the gun is capable of firing. Absent the AGS, the only other significant weapon
system on the ship is the 80x Mk57 VLS which can launch ESSM, Tomahawk,
Standards, and the like.
The problem is that the 16,000 t, $8.4B ship, without the
AGS, brings very little to the fleet in terms of combat capability. Despite these problems, the Navy seems
determined to operate the ship as if it were a useful asset. The reality, though, is that the ship has no
Concept of Operations (CONOPS), offers little combat capability, and
contributes little to the fleet. That
being the case, one has to wonder why the Navy wants to operate the ship. Why not park the ships and leave them idle
pending the onset of a major war? The
Navy is constantly whining about the cost of operating ships and yet they’re
pouring budget money into these marginally useful vessels that appear to be an
evolutionary dead end. Park the ships
and save operating budget as well as wear and tear on the ships.
From Wiki, a white elephant is a possession
which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of
maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is an
object, building project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered
expensive but without use or value.
Zumwalt’s publicity tour isn’t the Great White Fleet, it’s the
Great White Elephant.
Ive read so many different blurbs about all the new ideas for the ships lately, but probably the nuttiest is that the Navy authorized BIW to cannibalize the third ship for parts for the first two!!! Why would that be necessary already?? This program is so far off the rails...
ReplyDeleteI agree, they should probably be laid up, and one ship used as a test bed for the "emerging technologies". All that power production capability will surely be useful for somthing at some point, just not yet.
The LCS is continuing to flounder as well, with millions just recently being awarded for "studies" to investigate adding weapons and radars to them. I think youre onto somthing... Weve created the "Great White Elephant Fleet". Sadly, its outgunned by its predecessor of over a hundred years ago...!!! If this whole debacle wasnt so tragic and threatening to national security, itd be a great comedic reality show...
Agree, we should store them until we can use all that reserve power for lasers or whatever scifi tech USN is dreaming off. Just turn them into tech test beds which might happen eventually once USN parades them around for a year or 2 than USN probably will discreetly tie them up.
ReplyDeleteAnother option would be to turn one of them into a surrogate Russian or Chinese DDG to play OPFOR! With such a low volume asset, why not? ;)
Agree if this wasnt such a national security question and so expensive, it would be a comedy watching USN screw up all these programs. Sad....
You forgot the the biggest White Elephant in Fleet,
ReplyDeletethe LHA Ford.
If all we need to make the Zumi's useful is ammo for its main gun then perhaps we should consider alternative suppliers. Hasbro makes some wonderful projectiles. Yes, they don't have the damage profile we're used to, but lower damage level can help limit the escalation cycle.
ReplyDeleteIt can't fire anything else. (Even though that was requirement).
DeleteLike at all. The AGS round in reality is literally a missile fired from a gun. Its over 7ft long.
I am sure that for a small nominal fee Hasbro can design a nerf missile for it.
DeleteBut wait... The Navy has a plan. Theyve turned the Zumwalt Squadron into the Surface Development Squadron, which has a three part plan. By 2024 they will be able to start experimenting and integrating with the MUSV and LUSV and join CVBGs...
ReplyDeleteIt was a wonderful, rosy USNI article. Chock full of buzzwords and such, but the read-between-the-lines message is "we just bought stuff, and are buying even more stuff, and hopefully we can find a use for it..."
Its just amazing that we can spend so much money without a properly thought out CONOP ahead of time. Does the Admiralty really believe in these decisions or is it a matter of shrugging their shoulders and saying "oops, too late to quit now so lets just run with it"??????
Just read The War Zone tonight, great write up about the Big Z. Sounds like they will also dump, I mean assign the first 4 LCSs to new SurDevSq! Plus there's a mention that Z could play OPFOR! Basically, USN doesn't know what to do with the 3 Zs or how many remain functional after a few years....sad.
DeleteWhat you are hearing is the hummingbird-like sound of rapid hand waving. You can tell they are blowing smoke when a statement like this occurs:"the possibilities are endless. And so to figure out, flesh out what those possibilities are,:...blah blah blah, yakk yakk yakk. The point is they don't know what they are doing, it is a classic technology crap shoot. What is criminal is $24B+ for ZUMWALT Class, and planned $4B+ for USVs. That amount of money represents at least 10 more ships that can do something, instead of the useless three we have now plus more stuff we don't need. Tie up two out of the ZUMWALTs, let one be a test platform to test real stuff like AMDR and reduce risk for current programs (a modern day USS NORTON SOUND), and scale back plans to buy stuff you have no requirement for until the prototypes you do field can coalesce around a serious mission with CONOPS. We cannot afford this incompetency.
DeletePardon me! Here is where I read the asinine quote:
Deletehttps://news.usni.org/2019/05/22/navy-stands-up-surface-development-squadron-for-ddg-1000-unmanned-experimentation?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebb%2005.23.19&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
Well I mean, you've got the stealth hulls. Might as well use the Zumwalts as aggressor ships and threat substitutes for hypothetical enemy stealth warships.
ReplyDeleteChina-054 VS US-LCS
ReplyDeleteChina-055 VS US-Zumwalt
What comes out form your mind?
The 054A is a true multi-role frigate whereas the LCS is a single role corvette whose role depends on which module is currently loaded. They perform different functions and are not directly comparable. The US Navy has no vessel comparable to the 054A. The retired Perry class FFG would have been a comparable ship.
DeleteSimilarly, the 055 and Zumwalt have different roles and are not comparable (setting aside the Zumwalt's loss of its main weapon, the AGS). The more appropriate comparison to the 055 is the Ticonderoga.
So the RN lost several destroyers and frigates in a 10 week limited war against a country with no strong tradition of air or naval war using a lot of dumb or retarded bombs. The Exocets the Argentinians did fire were effective. The LCS is best used to absorb a few of China's AShMa or 130mm stock. I have grave doubts about the Bourkes, and US allies are in similar straights. Given how long it takes to build modern ships, how do you see a shooting war playing out? Especially with low stocks of missiles of all sorts.
ReplyDeleteCould Zumwalts be effective in any way?
The only combat capability the Zumwalts have are the 80x Mk57 VLS. Given all the Ticos and Burkes we already have, that's a fairly minor combat contribution and, in terms of value for the money spent, it's a very poor return on investment.
DeleteI was thinking the same thing. Load them up with SeaRAM launchers and have them simulate the carriers. That's probably the best use for them.
Delete