Monday, November 4, 2013

Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer: The USN Navy's massive, high-tech destroyer is here (pictures) from CNet, November 4, 2013

Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer

Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
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  • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
  • Tumblehome hull
  • Ready, aim, fire
  • Design features and systems
  • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
  • Under construction
  • Enhanced stealth capabilities
  • Big ship, low profile
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works launched the first of the Navy’s next-generation Zumwalt-class destroyers on Monday at its Bath, Maine, shipyard.
The 610-foot-long ship is chockablock with new technologies including radar reflecting angles, a striking inward-sloping tumblehome hull, an all-electric integrated power system, and an advanced gun system.
    October 29, 2013 1:42 PM PDT
    Photo by: US Navy/General Dynamics Bath Iron Works
    | Caption by: James Martin
     

    Member Comments


    Tumblehome hull
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Ready, aim, fire
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Design features and systems
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Autonomic Fire Suppression System

    Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Under construction
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Enhanced stealth capabilities

    Enhanced stealth capabilities
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile

    Big ship, low profile
    Scroll RightScroll Left
    • Next-gen Zumwalt-class destroyer
    • Tumblehome hull
    • Ready, aim, fire
    • Design features and systems
    • Autonomic Fire Suppression System
    • Under construction
    • Enhanced stealth capabilities
    • Big ship, low profile
    98 Comments
    51 people following
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    JimBob88--2008
    It should certainly help defend us from threats from our enemies' naval forces.  The 5 Somali fishing vessels and 2 afghan dingies are doomed.  3 cheers.
    jjacobus
    I notice they reduced the crew size. This one has a complement of 142, previous classes are about 275. That  a big difference and speaks to the efficiency of design. 
    divergence2
    well, looks cool anyway. It's another one of those things that I'd be perfectly happy if it never had to be tested in a real mission.
    jdilla81
    Nice, the empire starting to build ships that look like The Empire from Star Wars. Be sure to give that freedom to our multinationals or this baby will come liberate your people into the ground!
    fuzzayman-
    Imagine that. A 610 foot long ship now called a destroyer. Nothing at all like this has sailed the seas. I wonder how she'll do on her shakedown cruise..
    regulator1956
    CNet's e-mail:  "The US Navy's most technologically sophisticated and largest warship ever finally enters the water."
    At 600 feet long and 14,600 tons, it's not even close to being big, let alone largest.
    talk2farley
    @regulator1956 600 feet and 14,600 tons is not big? This thing is larger than most cruisers. The name destroyer has entirely lost its classical meaning; it's a battlecruiser, plain and simple.
    PRVMtn
    I wonder why the Navy prefers to label these as 'Destroyers'. The unique capability they are hoped to provide is deep-reaching coastal bombardment with the LRLAP  (Long Range Land Attack Projectiles). The Zumwalt class will be over 40 feet longer, 25 feet wider and half again as heavy as our Ticonderoga class 'Cruisers'. Given their mission and size, it would seem we have a modern-day 'Battleship'. Why not call it that? International public relations? Not measuring up to folks' romantic images of the WWII ships? Maybe the term 'Battleship' got retired with the Iowa Class.
    95vette
    Maybe it's not the name, maybe it's the mission. Nothing "romantic" about those old WW2 ships, we should not have had to serve on ships built in 1944 in 1970, you have to give your volunteer Patriots the best tool that you can if you are going to put them in harm's way. I speak from experience, Anchors Aweigh!
    NazTech
    @PRVMtn You are correct about the nomenclature of the ships. Battleship used to be the be all and end all of sea power. But the aircraft carrier proved that wrong.  The Navy uses "destroyer" mainly because it sounds smaller, deadlier and more efficient than the other names. It also sounds cheaper to the bean counters in DC.
    95vette
    As with todays modern Fighter Jets there is a little feature called fire and forget, you no longer have to see your enemy to paint a target nor do you have to be closer than 50-100 miles, maybe more. Not like the old days when you almost had to see their masts on the horizon. Added to this is the capability to destroy incoming missle by the use of point defense missles and automatic Gatling guns. But most impostant here is the stealth technology, if your enemy doesn't know you're there, what will they even shoot at? Money well spent, especially to us old tin can sailors.
    xyz1981555
    I know what these "advanced state of the art systems/operating systems" are........They are bloated, overly complex, complicated, hard to maintain..and useless expenditure of taxpayer money! !
    I have seen a lot of America Operating System/IT system environments, they are good for nothing and complicated to maintain !
    danielllong
    @xyz1981555 Did you just compare the most advanced warship in the world to Microsoft Windows?
    xyz1981555
    @danielllong They just say "it is the most advanced warship" as a propaganda strategy, the Pentagon is good at it and so is discovery channel....
    See, if Microsoft after spending tens of billions of dollars, can come up with a shi$$y OS like windows.....what do you expect from "Raytheon"...a defense contractor?? 
    This ship is just another contraption, and just another waste of tax payer money!!
    Aeonus
    @xyz1981555 You couldn't be more wrong about anything you've said. American IT environments good for nothing, complicated to maintain? We host some of the largest tech companies in the world.
    Also, Windows is just fine.
    Clearly you've never worked in IT, or if you have, have never graduated beyond level 1 helpdesk, otherwise you'd have knowledge of these things.
    danielllong
    @xyz1981555 To add to @Aeonus you also don't know anything about the world's greatest navy.  Being a recent navy vet, i think I might have some insight that is free of "propaganda strategy"  Our ships are the fiercest, and more technically advanced in the world.  Since when has the government every over sold our weapons capability.  If anything, we have MORE firepower than what is publicly known.
    xyz1981555
    @Aeonus Hey I have worked in IT for 9 years now predominantly for companies in UK and now USA....I find US systems to be the worst......overly complex and because the level of regulations and rules you have is enormous...
    I work specifically in Business Intelligence and more specifically on Microsoft SQL server....My current client is the biggest healthcare company in USA...and they are complete load of "Bull"...... I would classify IT systems in the USA as a load of "crap"....
    xyz1981555
    @danielllong Yeah sure....The world's greatest navy which can be easily brought to a standstill by a nerd sitting in his basement through a cyber attack!! Too much reliance on technology and computers also has its own downside.....Your computer systems are down, and you are nothing but a piece of metal floating in the vast oceans!! 
    Your ships are nothing but metal hulls driven by computers......and easily vulnerable!
    xyz1981555
    @Aeonus After all it is just metal and "damn" software written by someone.....But how much attention are we really paying to the "software" that is running "YOU"...This human being....the most sophisticated piece of software ever written on the planet is right there...but you go on missing its "beauty" and "sophistication" and are instead "fascinated" by a dead lifeless computer and what it does!!
    This is the fallacy of the "WEST" they go on going after the material world...and miss every day in their life, the "sophistication" that life itself is! An advanced piece of life called Human....Because they have never come face to face with a Buddha..and hence conclude that a damn computer is more important than this "human being"
    dizzymon
    You know what this will stop? The tax payers money from reaching your own pockets! How's that for innovation?
    95vette
    After having spent 4 years burning oil in the fireroom of a WW2 leftover Tin Can, I would love to see this up close and personal. Hat's off to those new Tin Can Sailors!
    danielllong
    @95vette Former mk41 VLS GM on a guided missile destroyer (04-08), The same back to you guys :) 
    She is pretty amazing.  Nobody is saying it, but if you look close at one of the pictures with the block diagram, you will see the vertical launching is aligned around the hull instead of central on the ship like a standard arleigh burke.  Unusual.
    JJnTech
    Meanwhile in other countries:
    Commander.: So we will first strike the weapons "here, here, and here" as shown in the picture above.
    JJMach
    @JJnTech

    The main weapon ports are visible on the exterior of the ship.  These are not the first pictures anyone has made of this ship, so there's no point hiding what's what.  By the time you can see and try to target a specific weapon, the ship has seen and is targeting you.  Also, if you want to take out a ship, you're not going to try to pick off one weapon at a time.  You want to blow its magazine (ammunition storage) - as addressed by someone else, or take out its engine.

    Some anti-ship missiles, like the Harpoon, can be programmed to target a specific location on a ship to maximize damage.  Typically you target the engine room to cripple the ship.  That's where the "Integrated Fight Through Power" and "Advanced Induction Motors" come in.  Fancy phrase means, no longer is the ship's engines connected to the propellers through large shafts and massive gearing systems that can be taken out by a good hit.  You now have redundant electric generators feeding electricity to motors tied directly to the screws through fewer, more secure moving parts that will be much harder to take out.  The real trick: those redundant generators may not be located in the same place from ship to ship, even in the same class.  That way, you can't pre-program a missile to target them.
    JusttJoe
    So I know little to nothing about naval ships, but I did note that some of this is built with composite material. What I didn't note was any detail in regards to how well the ships hull was armored. Is this the new class of ships I've heard about that will die with a single missile hit? I seem to recall the theory that their defence system was so good, and with improved speed, mobility and smaller radar profile...all that would make up for the one lucky missile strike...
    EalaDubh
    @JusttJoe The Zumwalt has armor, but it's missile tubes are on the edges of the ship, with very thin exterior armor and thick interior bulkhead armor so any hit to a magazine or missile that causes an explosion will be directed outward. It is therefore much less likely that a hit will tear the ship in half as is common on more traditionally built vessels. 
    chris7977
    Stupid thing is to post topics like this to tell other countries exactly what this has under the hood. Not that they probably don't know already.
    KilroyRS
    @chris7977 Except that they don't know what is under the hood.  Everything listed are just the declassified details; the classified details will exceed these by a fair amount.  An Abrams tank is rated at 42mph - I can assure you, they can go much much faster...
    nikkiaa
    Actually, the Total Ship Computing System refers to connected interchangable computing modules. The underlying OS is  a Linux distribution, not something developed by Raytheon. (Wiki)
    Jeff-X
    Looks terrific - high-tech meets ironclad, aka steampunk for real.
    Suspect the swept-back snout isn't for ramming the enemy though, at least, not with that sonar bulge mounted on the tip. Stealth and detection are more important naval tech these days.
    mzungu_writes
    The first captain of the vessel needs to be Islamic in that we we can prove we are not Islamophobic.  That will win their trust and the Middle-East will love us finally. How much you want to bet its already been suggested by the Pentagon.
    Portlander381
    @mzungu_writes > we can prove we are not Islamophobic.

    Be sure to take your meds daily.  If you slip a few days, poof, you start imagining navy seal teams waiting in trees outside your house.  That sort of things is not good for anybody.  And specially hard on your family members who have to take care of you.
    chris7977
    @mzungu_writes Bad ideas... That is the last thing we need. Everyone has their opinion though.
    Seaspray0
    "That will win their trust and the Middle-East will love us finally."  Given the barbaric ethnic/cultural/ratial/theological cleansing cultire that has been in place there for thousands of years, are you friggin' nuts?
    seascape195
    So, what you are saying is, this very expensive boat all comes down to firing off an EPM and it's completely useless. Sounds pretty short-sighted to me for something so next gen.
    darkwingdave
    On Battlestar Galactica, the thing that saved them from the surprise attack was the ship's systems weren't all connected so one attack wouldn't compromise the ship. Is this something we should be concerned about here with cyberhackers getting more and more sophisticated?

    solitare_pax
    It reminds me a little of warships of the late 19th / early 20th century.  
    tundraboy
    The Olympia's bow is shaped that way because it was designed for ramming. The Zumwalt's is probably that way for stealth properties. Not claiming to be an expert though.
    solitare_pax
    @tundraboy  
    The lower part of the bow is designed that way to improve hydrodynamics in the water; most large ships have that 'bulb' feature on them these days.  It probably houses a sonar array as well.
    As for the continued slant upwards, it is an interesting idea - possibly to reduce the radar cross-section and let it 'blend' in at a distance visually as well with say, an island, or waves.  But I expect the trade off will be that it is a 'wet' boat in heavier weather.
    mbk1999
    Awesome design and tech but nothing beats seeing a New Jersey class BB fire all her 16 inch guns.
    Now that was firepower! 
    tundraboy
    An SSBN launching all its nukes, now that is real firepower! (Which I don't ever want to see happen.)
    zengarval
    @mbk1999 There is no such thing as a New Jersey class BB.  USS New Jersey was one of the Iowa Class BB: Iowa, Misouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Kentucky (never completed and converted to other use), Illinois (keel laid but then completely scraped). Iowa class had 15 inch guns mounted in three triple turrets.  The last class planned was the Montana class: 18 inch guns in three triple turrets.  They were intended to match the Yamato and Musashi of the Japanese Imperial Navy but wiser heads prevailed and major US Naval construction continued to focus on aircraft carriers and submarines.
    JTW218
    Its not Superstructure..its THE DECKHOUSE!

    Good freaking lord!
    danielllong
    @JTW218 spent 4 years aboard a DDG... never heard it called that :)
    JTW218
    @danielllong Because the salt air affected your brain :) We never had that problem on the 688/688is
    Beats me why they are calling it the Deckhouse now...You know Kids and their fancy nicknames.
    Provided you Tin Can Surfers know how to use a computer. :)
    ExiaZX
    I'm impressed despite the federal debt and federal shutdown.
    Da-Bomb1
    @ExiaZX The Department of Defense had no such shutdown.
    iced327
    @Da-Bomb1 @ExiaZX Dept of Defense employee here. Yes we did. Projects like this were funded decades before this shutdown nonsense (...i.e. during the LAST shutdown).  Remember: we're middle class working Americans like the rest of you, not warmongers.
    solitare_pax
    Agreed; the shutdown did not affect pre-funded projects like this, where the fully funded budgets or grants were made in prior budgets in large sums of money.
    Those affected were in portions of the government that were not fully funded for more than one year, and required approval each year by our alleged Congressmen.
    Sadly, some Conservative Republicans simply do not approve of ensuring hard working government employees getting paid, any more than they approve of feeding the poor, caring for the elderly, or providing for servicemen who dared return from combat with medical issues rather than in a casket.
    Seaspray0
    I would like to see alot of government employees no longer get paid.  Reality is reality.  It's full of bloated administration and since I'm a taxpayer paying the bill, I am definitely not seeing getting my money's worth.  There are alot of hard working people in the private sector that get laid off or shoved to part time daily.  I don't see government crying for them, and in many recent cases are responsible.  So you can cry me a river all you like, I don't care.
    tundraboy
    610 ft length!  That used to be the length of a WWII cruiser.  The smooth, closed surfaces does remind me of the USS Monitor, so full circle on the design of metal-built warships then.
    badasscat
    @tundraboy The shell is actually carbon fiber. Which doesn't seem like it'd be very good armor, but what the heck do I know.
    EalaDubh
    @badasscat @tundraboy The armor is internal. The external shell is composite, and it surrounds the missile launch tubes and magazines which are located along the edge of the ship with the armor on the inner bulkheads. In this way, any hit to the ordinance and magazines will explode outward, away from critical systems and people. 
    JTW218
    1 It is a Hull, not a Shell.
    2 The deckhouse is the only part that is composite. You do not want a composite hull exposed to salt water for its entire existence.
    The key to know the keel is made of steel..General Dynamics Bath Iron Works laid the keel.
    xader
    it is an expensive & newest class of destroyer warship.   can it also be a submarine because everything integrate & close hull?  my questions will it ever be combat test in "live-fire" against another destroyer vs destroyer. 
    badasscat
    @xader Submarines have to be specially designed from the ground up as submarines. The pressures they have to withstand are incredibly intense. They're also designed to submerge; a ship like this couldn't submerge unless you poked a bunch of holes in it (in other words, unless you sink it).

    EalaDubh
    @badasscat @xader REmarkably, the Zumwalt DOES have ballast tanks like a submarine, but not really to submerge, but to lower itself in the water to give added stability as a gun platform.

    It does make me wonder if there might not eventually be a limited ability to submerge for stealth reasons. 
    JTW218
    @EalaDubh @badasscat @xader Destroyer hulls are not as thick as the hull of a submarine.
    Also the Deckhouse is composite. It would not stand up to the pressure. Though durable, water (especially salt water) can expand composite. A Submarine has to be fully water proof, all access points. Why you see Submarines are closed structures.
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