Looking a bit like an old Civil War Ironclad, the $7 billion DDG 1000 USS Zumwalt will focus on land attacks, relying heavily on its advanced stealth technology to slip in close to shore before unleashing its massive onboard arsenal.
Originally estimated to cost about $3.8 billion, the Zumwalt has so much technology crammed on board that its cost has nearly doubled, and after the first three are built, production will stop.
In addition the Zumwalt will be built to receive the Navy's new electromagnetic rail-gun that can fire projectiles at over five times the speed of sound.
Defense analyst Jay Korman says "They were looking to introduce so many new technologies at once, and the cost ballooned." Korman works with the Avascent Group concluded, "I don't think people have changed their minds that it's a capable ship. It's just too expensive."

Bath Iron Works in Maine, where the ship is being crafted, had to buy a new $40 million dollar building just to be able to assemble the huge ship. Despite its size, the new destroyer will only require half the crew of a traditional ship, due to the extensive onboard automation.

With concern growing about the vulnerability of America's aircraft carriers to Chinese missiles, the Zumwalt is said to be part of the Pentagon's renewed attention in the Pacific.

The Zumwalt is slated to hit the seas sometime in 2015.

USS ZumwaltUS NavyDDG 1000 Zumwalt has a peripheral vertical launch system (PVLS), which consists of 20 four-cell PVLS situated round the perimeter of the deck
USS ZumwaltDDG 1000 will have a 'tumblehome' hull form, in which the hull slopes inward from above the waterline
Bath Iron WorksAPThe ship is being built here at Maine's Bath Iron Works
USS ZUS NavyDDG 1000 design features and systems. The Zumwalt Class will be multimission vessels tailored for land attack and littoral dominance and will also have a sensor and weapons suite optimised for littoral warfare and for network-centric warfare
USS ZumwaltUS NavyBAE Systems Land and Armaments is developing the ship's advanced gun system (AGS), which will be able to fire advanced munitions and the Zumwalt Class vessels have two landing spots for helicopters
LRAPUS NavyThe new Long Range Attack Projectile (LRAP) — The DDG 1000 will be armed with tactical tomahawks, standard missile SM-3s and the evolved SeaSparrow missile