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USS Zumwalt: U.S Navy's biggest ever destroyer takes to the open seas for testing
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USS Zumwalt, the Navy's newest ship, is a technological leap forward (Photos)
Baltimore Business Journal
by Joshua Gordon
10/13/2016
Excerpt:
The Navy's newest ship, the USS Zumwalt, isn't quite the same as the futuristic USS Enterprise seen on the "Star Trek" movies and TV show, but the technology is the most advanced of any of the Navy's previous stealth destroyers.
And Capt. James Kirk, the commanding officer of the ship, might have a leg up on the fictional Capt. James T. Kirk seeing as his ship is real.
Kirk and his crew welcomed media on Thursday to get a tour of the new roughly $4.4 billion vessel before the commissioning takes place Saturday during Maryland Fleet Week & Air Show Baltimore. The ship is named after Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, who over a 32-year career in the Navy served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The first look at the ship compared to other destroyers docked next to it showed obvious differences, the most apparent being the sleek look and lack of much of anything on the surface.
All of that is to help with its stealth, Kirk said, with it having a 50-fold radar cross section reduction compared to the other destroyers.
"The shape of the ship is obviously an aspect [of the stealth] with a cleaner ship and less things top side," he said. "It assists with lowering the radar cross section and makes it very challenging for adversaries to track the Zumwalt while it goes about its missions."
At more than 15,500 tons, the Zumwalt is the Navy's largest destroyer by about 50 percent. Despite that, the ship can operate with half the crew of a normal destroyer because of all the technology implemented in the ship.
Kirk said there are over 35,000 signals being taken, processed and displayed on the ship, which is five to 10 times more than other class of ships. Because of this, there is a lot more automation and less interface with manual valves.
The Zumwalt can house a crew of up to 158, and because that is half of a normal crew, the living quarters are much nicer. Instead of 80-person bunk rooms, the Zumwalt has state rooms for four sailors and provide bathroom facilities in each state room.
The smaller crew has their work cut out for them with all the technology, Lt. Cmdr. Nathaniel Chase, the ship's chief engineer, said, but it also provides a different atmosphere than on other vessels.
"It is a more intimate [environment] and we are a pretty close family from top to bottom with the smaller crew," Chase said. "We get the full breadth of the family life here."
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View the complete article, including images, at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...ship-is-a.htmlB. Steadman
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