One of the most striking warships ever built is coming together in the little coastal town of Bath, Maine. The major components of the 610-foot-long ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) — a “destroyer” in name only — have been assembled this winter at the General Dynamics shipyard of Bath Iron Works, and the ship’s stark, tumblehome hull and superstructure is now together. These views were taken on Jan. 15, 2013, shortly after the deckhouse – built at Huntington Ingalls in Gulfport, Miss. — was lowered onto the hull.
The ZUMWALT will displace more than 15,600 tons full load, bigger than most World War II heavy cruisers. Eighty feet wide with a draft of more than 27 feet, the ship’s turbine generators will produce 78 megawatts of power, one of the largest electrical loads ever put to sea. The ship’s integrated power system will allow much of that power to be directed as needed, perhaps to future laser or directed energy weapons.
Construction of the ZUMWALT officially began in February 2009, and the ship is to be launched into the Kennebec River this summer. Delivery is to take place later in 2014, but it will likely be another two or three years before the ship and its host of new-technology systems is ready for service.
Two more ships of the class, the MICHAEL MONSOOR (DDG 1001) and LYNDON B. JOHNSON (DDG 1002), also are under construction at Bath. No more ships of this class are currently planned.
For more on these ships, see the Naval Sea Systems Command DDG 1000 website.
Two 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) weapons are installed on the ZUMWALT's foredeck. One is under the green shed, the other directly in front of it. The guns are flanked by a peripheral vertical launch missile system. The ship's radars and other sensors are embedded into the superstructure. (All photos courtesy General Dynamics Bath Iron Works)
Steel portions of the ship are painted in red primer. The light grey deckhouse and aircraft hangar aft of it are made of composite materials. The ship's stern has yet to be attached to the hull, and is visible in the shipyard at far left.
This angle affords a better view of the composite hangar and deckhouse. Later this year, the ZUMWALT will be rolled off Bath's Land Level Transfer Facility into the floating drydock at right. When ready for launch, the drydock will then be moved by tugs out into the Kennebec River and sunk into a hole in the river bottom, and the ZUMWALT will float off, to be returned pierside for fitting out.
alex gafford
These are the equivalent of heavy cruisers and in some way are similar to, though much more advanced, than the old Soviet battlecruisers like the Kirov. Describing them as DDXs was disingenuous from the beginning as was the idea that we could ever afford to build a lot of them. It will be interesting to see how they work, particularly as the hull form encounters parametric rolling conditions. All the same, expensive as they are, we should learn a great deal about future warship technology.
bobbymike
78 MW of power hope they aren’t using 787 batteries!
Cynical of me soory, it looks like a magnificant warship. One of the ships should be conversted to a stealth land attack/air defense ship. The back deck area should be fitted with hundreds of vertical lauch cells to accompany Standard missles for anti air and long range ATACMS and a new intermediate range global strike missile.
Because there will only be three of these you could park such a ship off of East Africa and cover half the continent for special forces to call in strikes of terrorist cells in places like Mali on station 24/7.
Alan
Great…..so we’ll build a whopping THREE of these “technological marvels”, and each will probably take YEARS to have the bugs worked out (if ever). Sorry to be cynical, but first in class are traditionally a disaster, as is evidenced by the San Antonio Class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio-class_amphibious_transport_dock). The Zumwalt(s) will be even more complex, which leads me to believe it’ll take much time for it to truly be FOC (if ever) and, even then, with only three hulls they won’t have enough of a presence to be in all the hotspots.
Bob
I think the stern is completed. Looks like that other hull section is for another ship. At least that is what I can tell from the conceptual pictures I’ve seen.
Ted
Total waste of our tax dollars. US Army Colonel Welch study showed this to be the case and showed how the Navy lied to congress about this platform and what capabilities the Iowa Class Battleships have.
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA481976
For far less $$$ we could have had 4 Iowa Class Battleships Modernized and deliver a WHOLE lot of firepower.