The 610ft-long destroyer features a wave-piercing tumblehome hull, stealth design, electric propulsion system and advanced war fighting technology and ammunitions.
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It left Bath Iron Works in ME, where it was built, on Wednesday.
The ship combat surface ship generates nearly as much electricity as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to the navy, in order to accommodate “future weapons and computing systems”.
The nation’s largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyer will join the Navy with a crew that’s the smallest of any destroyer built since the 1930s thanks to extensive automation.
USS Zumwalt is the lead ship of Zumwalt-class, the next-generation multi-mission destroyers created to strengthen naval power.
Image: USS Zumwalt transits the Atlantic Ocean during acceptance trials.
The departure from Bath follows the May delivery of the 16,000-ton destroyer to the service after several months of delay for a testing period to prove out the ship’s first-of integrated propulsion system (IPS). He said he prefers the arrangement because there’s more work to do and more systems to learn. At 610 feet long and 80.7 feet wide, Zumwalt is 100 feet longer and 13 feet wider and its flight deck is 93 percent larger than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
“The 147 Sailors of Zumwalt (DDG 1000) have completed the training and certifications required of them in record time”.
According to the US Naval Institute, the USS Zumwalt is created to operate close to shore, shares several features with stealth aircraft – like avoiding curves in the design – to keep its radar cross section low.
DDG 1000 is named for Adm. Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., former chief of naval operations (CNO) from 1970 to 1974.
The sleek warship looks like no other ship in the fleet.
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Bath Iron Works, part of General Dynamics, has been commissioned to build three Zumwalt-class destroyers for the U.S. Navy, Zumwalt (DDG 1000), Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) and Lyndon Johnson (DDG 1002).
