USN Zumwalt Launched

[Journeyman]

I notice for balance the article had to include dingbat quotes....

Calling the ship “a colossal waste of money,” Bruce Gagnon, a member of the group that has protested such christenings across from the Bath shipyard for more than 10 years, said.....

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

pew pew... pew pew pew... BOOM!  'murica

In all seriousness looks like a very capable ship from what I've read on it.

 

[tomahawk6]

At $4b a copy with tight budgets,there may not be enough of these ships.As Stalin once said,"Quantity is a quality of its own".The USN needs to get back to a 600 ship baseline.

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

At $4b a copy with tight budgets,there may not be enough of these ships.As Stalin once said,"Quantity is a quality of its own".The USN needs to get back to a 600 ship baseline.

I agree that $4b/ship is insanely expensive, but I thought I read previously in another article that the $4b also covered the costs of the plans, development and modernization of this new class.  So my guess would be that follow on ships would have a significant reduction in cost.

 

[tomahawk6]

Modern weapon system costs remind me of a space warfare game I used to play many years ago.You had a budget and the player either produced a hi-lo mix of warships or went all hi tech and could only buy a few warships.The winner usually won through attrition.

 

[MilEME09]

Also remember this ship needs half the crew size as current US destroyers, Take into account the pay for say 130 sailors and add that to the ships cost and that will add to the short term cost with long term savings.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Already the LCS is showing that their crew saving potential is not realistic or sustainable, lets hope they have room for expansion in the crew quarters.

 

[CougarKing]

Stealthy warship Zumwalt is soon getting jet fuel
By David Sharp
Associated Press - 47 minutes ago

BATH, Maine (AP) - Bath Iron Works is getting ready to bring fuel aboard the Navy's biggest destroyer in preparation for firing up some of the world's largest marine turbines this summer.

Shipbuilders will be working methodically in the coming weeks to bring JP-5 military-grade jet fuel aboard the ship and flush the systems before lighting off the turbines and activating the ship's high-tech electrical systems. It's a complicated process for the first-in-class Zumwalt.

Those turbines won't propel the ship. They'll provide the grunt for generators that produce electricity that drives the ship.

Rolls-Royce modified its Boeing 777 turbo fan engines, each of them enclosed with an automated fire suppression system deep in the belly of the ship. Banks of high-voltage electrical switches and voltage converters lend the appearance of a power plant.

The ship also has tremendous electrical capabilities. The two main generators, along with two auxiliary units, can produce 78 megawatts, enough electricity for about 10,000 homes. All the power can be diverted to where it's needed, ship propulsion, or weapons or radar. Down the road, there's enough juice to operate an electromagnetic rail gun.

AP / Washington Times

 

[CougarKing]

The 2nd ship in the class, USS Michael Monsoor, starts to take shape:

HII delivers composite deckhouse for second Zumwalt-class destroyer

Grace Jean, Washington, DC - IHS Jane's Navy International
13 August 2014


Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) handed over its second and final composite deckhouse for the US Navy's (USN's) Zumwalt-class destroyer programme on 7 August.

HII's Gulfport Composite Center of Excellence based in Gulfport, Mississippi, manufactured the 900-tonne carbon fibre composite deck, which is to be barged up to Bath, Maine, where prime contractor General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (GDBIW) will integrate it onto the steel hull of second-in-class Zumwalt destroyer Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001).

As expected, HII has shuttered its Gulfport facility due to declining naval work in composites. The company was to have built a third deckhouse and hangar for the Zumwalt programme, but navy officials opted to return to an all-steel superstructure design on the third and final ship of the class, Lyndon B Johnson (DDG 1002), after failed price negotiations with HII. The USN subsequently awarded a USD212 million design and construction contract to GDBIW, the programme's prime contractor, on 2 August 2013.

USN programme officials previously told IHS Jane's that part of the decision was based on a decrease in the overall weight of the Zumwalt-class ships, which allowed the navy to revert to a steel deckhouse and hangar design.

The USN is acquiring a three-ship Zumwalt class. Lead ship Zumwalt (DDG 1000), which is being completed and tested at GDBIW, is expected to reach initial operational capability in 2016.

Michael Monsoor is expected to be ready for handover in 2016, followed by Lyndon B Johnson in 2018.

IHS Jane's 360

 

[CougarKing]

Let there be light!  ;D

Navy Lights Off Zumwalt Generators

Sam LaGrone
September 26, 2014


The Navy has started the massive gas turbines in its latest class of guided missile destroyer ahead of the ship’s commissioning next year, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced on Thursday.

The first-in-class Zumwalt (DDG-1000) fired up the two Rolls Royce MT-30 and two smaller Rolls-Royce RR450 gas turbines this week as part of testing the ships new integrated power system (IPS) that will use the combined 80 mega-watt power to power the ship and its new advanced induction motors (AIM).

“Light-off of DDG-1000’s generators is a critical step forward in the ACTIVATION, test, and trials of the ship’s systems,” said Capt. Jim Downey, DDG-1000 program manager in the Thursday statement.

Unlike traditional gas turbine arrangements on U.S. naval ships, the 36 mega-watt MT-30s and 3.8 mega-watt RR450s will drive a ship-wide electrical grid. Instead of having a direct mechanical connection to the ship’s propellers or water jets, the turbines will route power electrically to complex electrical motors that will drive the ship — crucial to the Navy’s IPS concept.

IPS is the Navy’s most mature expression of the so-called decades-old electric ship concept.

SourceUS Naval Institute

 

[cupper]

And then the ship promptly disappeared, reappeared in Norfolk Virginia, then disappeared to reappear back in Maine. ;D

 

[CougarKing]

And then the ship promptly disappeared, reappeared in Norfolk Virginia, then disappeared to reappear back in Maine. ;D

You've watched the movie "The Philadelphia Experiment" one too many times.  ;D

 

[Navy_Pete]

Wow, JP5 for the generators... that's getting hard to find anywhere.  There aren't too many refineries that make it anymore, not sure how they will get it while deployed, unless they have a tanker full of JP5.

 

[CougarKing]

Will someone more versed in naval munitions please weigh in on this?

Defense News

Experts Question US Navy's Decision To Swap Out DDG 1000's Secondary Gun
Oct. 12, 2014 - 01:50PM  |  By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS 

WASHINGTON — Bigger often means better, especially when the discussion is about one gun versus another. But a decision to replace a secondary weapon on the US Navy’s new Zumwalt-class destroyer with a smaller gun caliber is raising some eyebrows within the surface warfare community.

And the reason for dropping a 57mm weapon for a 30mm may be more surprising.

The Mark 110 57mm gun, “was nowhere near meeting the requirements,” said Capt. Jim Downey, program manager for the DDG 1000 Zumwalt class.

In fact, Downey said, the 57mm gun — selected years ago for the DDG 1000 as a close-in weapon and in service as the primary gun for the littoral combat ship and Coast Guard national security cutters — is overrated.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[NavyShooter]

This is the same Bofors 57mm Mk III that we use.  (Minor differences, but same gun platform.)

It is, effectively, a scaled up version of the WWII era 40mm Bofors L/70.

The increased capabilities that have been given with the new 57mm 3P ammo might not be as good as they were thinking?  Perhaps?

Or maybe the fact that it's not US built has drawn attention somehow and they have to buy something American?

I don't know.

It could be that they're looking at it for Point Defense? 

 

[tomahawk6]

Maybe the standard 5in 54 gun might be better against surface targets ?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The designer is pooh-poohing the idea of weight being the issue, but it's a big chunk of weight high up and given the habit of many designs nowadays being top heavy I would not be surprised that it is the real issue and admitting so would lead to other questions about the integrity of the design.

 

[CougarKing]

The 2nd in the class takes shape:

Defense News Intercepts

Dropping The Top – Destroyer MICHAEL MONSOOR Gets A Deckhouse
Christopher P. Cavas / 11 hours ago

It was a dark and stormy night – – really — on the evening of November 13-14 in Bath, Maine, home of shipbuilders Bath Iron Works. Rain turned to snow as the shipyard prepared to execute one of the trickiest maneuvers in the construction of DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers – placing the prefabricated deckhouse onto the 600-foot long hull of the warship.

Built in Gulfport, Mississippi by Ingalls Shipbuilding, the composite-structure deckhouse was shipped in late summer to Maine, where a steel foundation was fitted on its lower edges. The structure will eventually house the ship’s radars and other sensors, along with numerous other fittings.

The procedure for installing the deckhouse on the MICHAEL MONSOOR (DDG 1001) was essentially the same as that on the ZUMWALT (DDG 1000). Four cranes lifted the deckhouse high into the air, and the entire hull of the ship was rolled into place underneath it. Slowly and ever-so-carefully, the deckhouse was lowered into place as engineers constantly checked the placement of the hull.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[tomahawk6]

Seems like a capable ship with 2 155mm guns that can lob shells 100 miles.When it gets the electromagnetic gun it will be a very potent platform.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478654/The-pride-fleet-U-S-Navys-largest-destroyer-hits-waves-time-ahead-seven-billion-dollar-stealth-battleships-official-2015-launch.html

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Slow news day T6?

Article is 18 months old. There's already a thread when the actual event occurred here:

http://milnet.ca/forums/threads/111589.0.html