USS Zumwalt
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USS Zumwalt after floating out of drydock in 2013.
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History | |
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Name: | Zumwalt |
Namesake: | Admiral Elmo Zumwalt |
Awarded: | 14 February 2008 |
Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
Cost: | > $3.5 billion[1] |
Laid down: | 17 November 2011[2] |
Launched: | 28 October 2013 |
Christened: | 12 April 2014 |
Commissioned: | 2016 (planned) |
Status: | Completed; Undergoing sea trials |
Badge: | 120px |
General characteristics | |
Class & type: | Zumwalt-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 14,564 tons[3] |
Length: | 600 ft (182.9 m) |
Beam: | 80.7 ft (24.6 m) |
Draft: | 27.6 ft (8.4 m) |
Installed power: | Integrated Power System (IPS) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph) |
Complement: | 142 |
Sensors and processing systems: |
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Armament: |
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Aircraft carried: |
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USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is the lead ship of the Zumwalt class and the first ship to be named for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.[6][7] Zumwalt has stealth capabilities, having a radar cross-section akin to a fishing boat despite her large size.[8] On 7 December 2015, Zumwalt began its sea trial preparatory to joining the Pacific Fleet.[9] She is to be homeported in San Diego, California.[10]
Contents
Etymology
Zumwalt is named after Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr., who was an American naval officer and the youngest man to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations.[11] As an admiral and later the 19th Chief of Naval Operations, Zumwalt played a major role in U.S. military history, especially during the Vietnam War.[11] A highly decorated war veteran, Zumwalt reformed the U.S. Navy's personnel policies in an effort to improve enlisted life and ease racial tensions.[11] After he retired from a 32-year naval career, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate.[11]
The hull classification symbol for Zumwalt is DDG-1000, forgoing the guided missile destroyer sequence that goes up to DDG-119 (USS Delbert D. Black, currently the latest of the named Arleigh Burke-class destroyers), and continue in the previous "gun destroyer" sequence left off with the last of the Spruance class, USS Hayler. With the production run of the Zumwalt class limited to three units, plans are underway for a third "flight" of Arleigh-Burke-class destroyers.
History
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Many of the ship's features were originally developed under the DD21 program ("21st Century Destroyer"). In 2001, Congress cut the DD-21 program by half as part of the SC21 program. To save it, the acquisition program was renamed as DD(X) and heavily reworked. The initial funding allocation for DDG-1000 was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007.[12]
The $1.4 billion contract was awarded to Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. [13] Full rate production officially began on 11 February 2009.[14]
As of July 2008, the construction timetable was for General Dynamics to deliver the ship in April 2013, with March 2015 as the target for Zumwalt to meet her initial operating capability.[15] However, by 2012, the planned completion and delivery of the vessel had slipped to the 2014 fiscal year.[16]
The first section of the ship was laid down on the slipway at Bath Iron Works on 17 November 2011.[16] By this point, fabrication of the ship was over 60% complete.[16] The naming ceremony was planned for 19 October 2013,[17] but was canceled due to the United States federal government shutdown of 2013.[18]
Despite rumors that the launch of Zumwalt would be delayed until early 2014, the vessel was launched from its shipyard in Bath, Maine on 29 October 2013.[19][20]
In January 2014, Zumwalt began to prepare for heavy weather trials. The trials will see how the ship and her instrumentation react to high winds, stormy seas, and adverse weather conditions. The ship's new wave-piercing inverted bow and tumblehome hull configuration reduce her radar cross-section. Tests will involve lateral and vertical accelerations and pitch and roll. Later tests will include fuel on-loading, data center tests, propulsion events, X-band radar evaluations, and mission systems activation to finalize integration of electronics, currently 90 percent complete out of 6 million lines of code. These all culminate in builders trials and acceptance trials, with delivery for U.S. Navy tests in late 2014 with initial operating capability (IOC) to be reached by 2016.[21]
Zumwalt's commanding officer is Captain James A. Kirk.[22] Kirk attracted some media attention when he was first named captain, due to the similarity of his name to that of the Star Trek television character Captain James T. Kirk, originated by William Shatner. Shatner wrote a letter of support to Zumwalt's crew in April 2014.[23]
On 7 December 2015, the ship departed Bath Iron Works for sea trials to allow the Navy and contractors to operate the vessel under rigorous conditions in order to determine if the Zumwalt is ready to join the fleet as an actively commissioned warship.[9]
On 12 December 2015, during sea trials, Zumwalt responded to a U.S. Coast Guard call for assistance for a fishing boat captain who was experiencing a medical emergency 40 nautical miles (74 km) from Portland, Maine. Due to deck conditions, the Coast Guard helicopter was unable to hoist the patient from the fishing boat, so the Zumwalt crew transferred him to the destroyer using an 11-meter inflatable boat, from which he was transported to shore by the Coast Guard helicopter and then to a hospital.[24]
References
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- This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). |
- Official website
- Christening of Lead Ship ZUMWALT (DDG 1000)—Official General Dynamics website
- DDG-1000 Zumwalt / DD(X) Multi-Mission Surface Combatant—GlobalSecurity.org site covering the Zumwalt class
- DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class—Multimission Destroyer, United States of America
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- ↑ DDG 1000 Preps for Heavy Weather Trials - DoDBuzz.com, 14 January 2014
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