Zumwalt was laid down in 2011. It’s been delivered, complete, in 2020. That’s 9 years to build a ship.
Nine years to build a ship.
Nine years.
What are we going to do when war comes and we start losing
ships and need to replace them? Are we
going to wait nine years for the first replacement? We really need to rethink our entire
conceptual approach to ship design and shipbuilding.
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| Zumwalt Plank Owner Awaiting Delivery |
(1)Commander, US Pacific Fleet, 24-Apr-2020,
https://www.cpf.navy.mil/news.aspx/130601
At the rate the Navy is going the next class of ships will be retired before they are delivered.
ReplyDeleteRetirement of the Zumwalt before delivery would have been the correct decision.
ReplyDeleteBut what are the going to do with it now, as far a I can see they don't really know.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a test platform for new systems is the only thing I can think of. Never going to be used in combat, except as an absolute last resort.
DeleteDelivered with it's raison d'etre, AGS not working and never will. What a scandal!
ReplyDeleteI bet we will see Zumwalt go for a little cruise, USN will issue a press release saying how happy they are about such a tremendous asset it is for the fleet....and it will sit next to a pier for the 10 years before being deactivated quietly with the other 2 ships. These 3 ships will never amount to anything in the fleet. Just like LCS but in a different shape.
Its only taken three and half years since commissioning, October 2016, to fit its combat systems, think it most be a new Navy record for the slowest installation.
ReplyDeleteZumwalt's averaging ~$8 billion per ship including the R & D, for its 80 VLS cells, a $100 million per cell, for same money they spent on the Zumwalt the Navy could have bought four Burkes with 384 VLS cells, $20.8 million per cell.
Are you looking over my shoulder???? I literally just wrote that exact post for the very near future publication! Oh well, I'll still post it but thanks for stealing my thunder! :(
DeleteIf the new frigates average out to $900 million each, they would only cost $28.1 million a cell. The Burkes are still a better deal.
Deletet the current high estimate for LUSV you are looking at 7.1 million per cell. Big and manned needs to be low cost area defense shots. Lasers, microwaves, decoys, ESM/ECM, and HVPs whether rail gun or conventional.
DeleteI would like to say something snarky and funny, but it's really just infuriating when you think about it.
ReplyDeleteThe navy has this situation where they have all these resources, and they completely squander them with idiocy like this and the LCS and the Ford.
I'm afraid we'll look back at this era and rue the wasted opportunities.
Have they ever found any bullets for its guns?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteGive then another nine years, and maybe...
DeleteWell if you can find some other 7ft long 155mm shell and it wont pop the breach when fired....
DeleteAnyone know of anyone looking for a dive wreck?
ReplyDeleteWith them and the LCSs, we could make a lot of divers happy.
DeleteI live on the Gulf Coast. I would love to see them for diving and invigorating our fishing stocks. Money well spent. ;)
DeleteI know it would cost alot, and probably involve cutting into sections, but as they have got the far wouldn't it be sensible to rip out the AGS and start again with Standard guns.
ReplyDeleteSetting cost aside, the only existing standard gun is the 5" and that's a very marginally useful weapon. To bring cost back into it, the cost to rip out AGS and replace with the nearly useless 5" gun on a cruiser size ship is simply not worth it.
DeleteIf they weren't hung up on not using 76mm guns, they could place 3-5 deck mounted Oto Melara 76mm guns on it.
ReplyDeleteCombined with essm, it could at least do some patrol work, protect tankers in the Gulf.
Imho
Andrew.
" it could at least do some patrol work,"
DeleteYou're right. It could. The embarrassment of an $9B ship doing patrol work, though ...
That and hanging extra stuff on the outside would kill its stealth. One of the big reasons to be for the Zummies.
DeleteCNO,
DeleteYes, definitely an embarrassment, but then they'd have 3 more ships for the task and they can free up 1-2 AB's for something else.
They still won't send the LCS.
Andrew
I keep having a daydream, where all the spectacular idiocy and failures are actually just fake news to lull other countries into miscounting our functional ships and their true capabilities.... ;)
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for Elmo Zumwalt the father of the Pegasus and the Perry cannot be sitting comfortably in his grave with his name on this white elephant
ReplyDelete...I think Rickover gave the commissioning speech at a (long overdue) nuke sub launch praising the yard workmen for their fine job, comparing them to the ancient Phoenician shipbuilders...then concluding by telling them that those old Phoenicians could have built it faster..
ReplyDeleteIs it finished though?
ReplyDeleteIf there was a war tomorrow would they send it in to battle in the state it's in?
As we've documented in previous posts, the Zumwalt has a unique missile situation in which the missiles require a special communications setup for guidance. I've been unable to determine whether any of these specially modified missiles actually exist, yet. My strong suspicion is that Zumwalt does not have any missiles loaded and won't have any for quite some time.
DeleteSo not only no bullets but no missiles? This just gets worse and worse.
DeleteComNavOps, what do you think about the new Frigates, from my fellow ItalianFincantieri design? And why did they choose to remove the 127mm gun and replace it with a mere 57mm?
ReplyDeleteThe great irony of the Zumwalts is honestly their guns. Even the rail guns cant keep up
ReplyDeleteThose guns are already obsolete with simple modern technology applied to normal cannons and there rounds.
"It’s been delivered, complete, in 2020."
ReplyDeleteComplete? Really?
If you mean complete disaster, maybe so.
Complete, as in all the contracted construction is complete. Whether it works is a separate issue.
Delete