Zumwalt class

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Zumwalt on one of the first trips
Zumwalt on one of the first trips
Overview
Type destroyer
units 2, 1 under construction
Namesake Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt
period of service

from 2016

Technical specifications
displacement

15,656  tons

length

190 meters

width

24.6 meters

Draft

8.4 meters

crew

158 including flight crew

drive

2 Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines (35.4 megawatts each) + 2 Rolls-Royce RR4500 generators (3.8 megawatts each), 2 propellers electrically driven; 78 megawatts.

speed

30 knots

Armament

80 VLS cells
2 guns 155 mm ( Advanced Gun System or Railgun )

The Zumwalt- class (pronunciation: / ˈzʊmwɔːlt /) is a destroyer- class of the United States Navy (USN). Originally the class was supposed to contain up to 32 ships, but this number has been reduced further and further for reasons of cost (4.4 billion US dollars per unit). So far, only three Zumwalt-class units have been approved, two of which were launched and the USS Zumwalt was the first to enter service in 2016. It is therefore unlikely that the Zumwalt class , as originally planned, will replace the Arleigh Burke class as the backbone of the USN's destroyer fleet. As a result, the USN has commissioned the production of more Burke destroyers.

With a displacement of 15,656 t, the Zumwalt- class ships are significantly heavier than the current destroyers of the USN (and heavier than the heavy cruisers of World War II ). They also have a radically modernized design that makes them stealth ships.

history

Project development

As early as 1991, parallel to the commissioning of the first unit of the Arleigh Burke class , the USN started a program that would result in the next generation of warships, which would ultimately also replace the Burkes . This ran under the title SC-21 (Surface Combatant, 21st Century) .

The destroyer project DD-21 emerged from this program at the end of the 1990s . Two competing teams competed to develop the class. Team Blue consisted of Bath Iron Works , along with Lockheed Martin , as partner for the ship systems and Team Gold of Ingalls Shipbuilding with Raytheon . The plan was to spend up to 1.5 billion US dollars on the first units, and from the tenth unit onwards, 750 million dollars, with a construction rate of three ships per year and the first commissioning in 2008. 32 units of the class were planned. Already here it was planned to name the type ship of the class USS Zumwalt , after Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt , who served as an officer in the Second World War and was promoted to Chief of Naval Operations until the Vietnam War .

In May 2001, the program was temporarily stopped because the US government wanted to review armaments spending in the Quadrennial Defense Review and the USN itself wanted to review its procurement strategy. This ultimately brought the end of the project, but the new program DD (X) was derived from it , which now aimed at a cheaper, smaller version of the DD-21 .

The new tender was launched on November 30, 2001, the old teams around Bath and Ingalls were the competitors again. On April 29, 2002, Ingalls, which was now part of Northrop Grumman , emerged as the winner of the tender. The development contract was valued at $ 2.9 billion but did not yet contain a contract to build the first unit. General Dynamics , as the mother of the Bath Iron Works, protested against the Government Accountability Office , but this was rejected in August, so that development began at Ingalls.

Northrop Grumman then began development, but in addition to Raytheon, Bath Iron Works with Lockheed Martin and BEA Systems were brought on board as partners. Originally, the USN continued to plan to build 32 units of the class. For cost reasons, this was soon reduced to 24, then to just seven units.

In 2006 the USN announced that it would also name the new type ship after Zumwalt. In 2008 the name of the second unit was announced. It will be named USS Michael Monsoor after the Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor , who perished in Iraq in 2006 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor . The ships are given the hull numbers DDG-1000 and -1001 . The USN thus deviates again from its classification scheme. As guided missile destroyers, the ships are correctly assigned the code DDG for Destroyer Guided Missile . The sequential number should have started after USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112) , the last Burke-class unit planned at that time . Instead, the USN fell back to the serial number of the old destroyer classification DD . This numbering ran up to USS Hayler (DD-997) from 1983. For symbolic reasons, the two following numbers were also omitted.

construction

The first contracts were signed in 2008

The USN awarded the first two construction contracts in February 2008 to Bath Iron Works for the first ship and Ingalls Shipbuilding for the second. Bath wanted to deliver its destroyer, the USS Zumwalt , to the USN in 2013, and Ingalls in 2014. At that time, costs of 3.3 billion US dollars each were planned. In fact, the cost of these two ships could rise to over $ 5 billion per unit. The following ships should cost around $ 2.5 billion, but experts from the Congressional Budget Office , Congressional Research Service, and Government Accountability Office estimate the actual cost to be up to $ 4 billion per unit. The USN spent around $ 13 billion for the entire project through 2008 for development alone.

In late July 2008 it was announced that the USN wanted to finish building the Zumwalt class after the first two units. In addition to the high costs, there were also technical reasons. Contrary to previous assurances, the class is unable to provide air defense against aircraft or ballistic missiles, Vice Admiral Barry McCullough told the United States Congress on July 31 . Instead, the USN wants to purchase more conventional Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that are better suited for this type of warfare. Just three weeks later, on August 19, US Senator Susan Collins from Maine announced that the USN wanted to build a third ship in the class. Among other things, economic reasons may have played a role. Maine-based Bath Iron Works is heavily reliant on destroyer builds, while Northrop Grumman has several other classes under construction with its destroyer locations in Ingalls and Avondale , including the San Antonio and America classes . Several politicians in the affected regions threatened to otherwise block money for future construction projects. In September 2008, the House of Representatives and the Senate announced in a statement that they intend to provide $ 2.5 billion in the 2009 budget for DDG-1002, which, however, according to the decision of the Secretary of State for the Navy, can also be used for the construction of other Burkes .

In April 2009, Gene Taylor , chairman of the Seapower subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Armed Services , announced that an agreement had been reached with the affected shipyards as part of cost reductions, according to which Bath would take over the development and construction of all three planned ships while Ingalls got the lead role in relaunching Burke production.

The keel of the first ship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt , took place on November 17, 2011; launched on October 28, 2013.

technology

hull

Graphic of the hull shape

The hull is 186 m long and 25 m wide, the draft is around 8.4 m. This makes the destroyers almost 30 m longer and 5 m wider than their predecessors in the Arleigh Burke class . However, they are over 50% heavier, instead of around 9,000  ts they displace a good 15,600 ts. This means that the Zumwalts are displacing more than many of the nuclear cruisers, which are roughly the same length . Of this class, only the USS Long Beach (CGN-9) comes close to the new ships, but was also 40 m longer.

Cut through the trunk

The Zumwalt class relies on a different hull shape than its predecessor. The particularly narrow bow shape reduces the buoyancy in this area and thus prevents the bow from floating on waves, but allows it to cut through the wave, which means that the ship and thus the weapon platform lie more calmly in the water. At the same time, the lower draft compared to the Arleigh Burke class in combination with the bow sonar and the flat hull shape, which flattens out towards the stern, prevents the hull from running aground or tipping over in shallow, e.g. B. coastal or subject to the tidal range , waters or rivers. A hull with inwardly inclined side walls ( English : tumblehome hull or o-shape ) is used, which, in contrast to the classic hull shape (English: flare hull or v-shape ), its greatest lateral expansion not on deck, but at the level of the waterline and from there it becomes narrower again. There is a single, fully clad deckhouse, the walls of which also slope inward. As there were no masts, the shape of the hull of the destroyer is more reminiscent of a submarine moving on the surface of the water.

The complete abandonment of surfaces arranged at right angles to the water surface reduces the effective radar cross-section . In addition, emphasis was placed on low acoustic, magnetic and infrared signatures ( stealth technology ). Although the "Zumwalt" is larger than an ordinary destroyer, the USN says it does not appear larger than a fishing boat on enemy radar screens. This extends - especially in combination with the possible uses in shallow waters and the armament (including Long Range Land Attack Projectiles (LRLAP, "far-reaching projectile against land targets") or also Railgun ) - the possible uses, also in the offensive area.

Behind the deckhouse there is a landing area for helicopters, and a hangar is integrated into the superstructure.

drive

In total, each Zumwalt-class ship should have four gas turbines. Of these, two main turbines will be of the Rolls-Royce MT 30 type, each with an output of 35 megawatts, and two auxiliary turbines, also from Rolls-Royce, with an output of four megawatts each. Two three-phase asynchronous machines are used to drive the two propellers . This means that the ships of the class will have fully electric propulsion; everything that has to be powered on the ship gets its power from an on-board power grid.

Armament

Zumwalt graphics in action

Missiles and cruise missiles

The destroyers are to receive an 80-cell vertical launching system . In contrast to the Mark 41 used in its predecessors, the Mark 57 Peripheral Vertical Launching System on the Zumwalts will no longer have a large block of up to 64 cells amidships. Instead, smaller blocks of four cells each are used on the deck edges. These are strong on the inside and only weakly armored on the outside, so that the explosion of a rocket directs its force outwards. In addition, a spatially restricted fire with this configuration would ignite fewer missiles and a hit ship also retains more defense options. The lower modularity is mentioned as a disadvantage of the system. It is no longer possible to replace the entire block with newly developed weapon systems. Cruise missiles of the type BGM-109 Tomahawk for land target attacks and standard missiles for fighting aircraft, guided missiles and cruise missiles are carried. The Standard Missile 6 is said to be the main armament of the Zumwalt class in its new role as an offensive surface strike destroyer . As an option, the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) can also be carried for close-range air defense . The ESSM can load four rockets per VLS cell. The VLS cell can also be loaded with RUM-139 VL-ASROC for fighting submarines .

Ship guns

Advanced Gun System

In addition, there are two 155 mm caliber ship guns called the Advanced Gun System on the foredeck . The guns are completely new developments by the British group BAE Systems . For them there is a shared, fully automatic magazine with a capacity of 600 rounds below deck. Another 320 rounds are stored in another magazine and have to be loaded manually. At the beginning of November 2016, the Pentagon decided to refrain from using this weapon system, which is also intended for combating land targets, because of its extraordinarily high costs. If the intended rocket-propelled LRLAP projectiles (Long Range Land Attack Projectile) are used, costs of at least 800,000 US dollars per shot are incurred.

Railguns

Instead of the advanced gun system, which is extremely expensive in terms of ammunition, the use of railguns is planned, which in terms of projectile speed and consequently range (up to approx. 350 km) and penetration power enable significantly higher performance and consequently also to defend against cruise missiles, ICBMs, Satellites and Ä. Be planned and designed. Another advantage would also be the elimination of the explosives not required for firing (electromagnetic principle) and consequently also a lower ammunition weight or increased storage capacity with a lower risk. Overall, this also suggests sea-based use. As with the expensive LRLAP projectiles of the Advanced Gun System, it is also possible to fight land targets at an even greater distance. As part of the test phase of the operational Railgun for the USN, GPS-guided projectiles (GPS guided hyper velocity projectiles, HVP) are now being used.

A $ 21 million contract signed by BAE with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in early 2009 initiated the development of the prototype, which, according to the ONR, can shoot 200 miles (320 km) in the 64 megajoule version should be ready for use as early as 2011.

At the beginning of 2015, at the “Naval Future Force: Science & Technology Expo”, a prototype of the Railgun ready for use on ships was officially presented, which can fight targets up to 100 nautical miles (> 182 km). The first series use is planned on ships of the Zumwalt class, at the latest the third destroyer of the Zumwalt class, USS Lyndon B. Johnson . The retractable gun assembly makes it possible to use the same on the Zumwalt class.

According to reports from the German Armed Forces magazine from 2014, the Zumwalt class is particularly suitable for the Railgun, as other warships apart from the Zumwalt class do not have enough energy at this time to use Railgun cannons, at least from 32 megajoules. However, General Atomics estimates (Railgun project by General Atomics and Boeing ) that the weapon can also be used regularly on destroyers of the Arleigh Burke class by 2020 at the latest . The energetic problem has been solved in the meantime; This is indicated by the fact that the prototype will be tested on a diesel-powered EPF fast catamaran of the Spearhead class as early as 2016 .

Defense against missiles

For self-defense, the ship is also equipped with two Mk.-110-57-mm - CIWS (also BAE Systems), which can destroy sea-skimming and top- attack anti- ship missiles at short distances.

Carried complementary weapon systems

A Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk and three Northrop Grumman RQ-8A Fire Scout (VTUAV) drones , or alternatively two Seahawk can be carried in the hangar . At the stern, two rigid inflatable boats can also be put down and picked up while the boat is in motion, for example to allow commando units to carry out special operations.

Others

Space was reserved in the draft for torpedo tubes, but it is not planned to equip them for the time being.

Sensors

The Zumwalt class ships were originally supposed to be equipped with two new types of radar systems. These are collectively referred to as Dual Band Radar (DBR) and replace up to ten own radar antennas on conventional ships. The DBR consists of the AN / SPY-3 , which operates in the X-band , and an S-band search radar. The former is responsible for the detection of low-flying and ground targets, as well as the exact target tracking and radar illumination, while the latter is responsible for the target search. Both radars use AESA technology. The associated computers are commercially off-the-shelf , the software is written in C ++ and Java . On June 2, 2010, however, the USN decided not to install the S-band radar on the Zumwalt . Instead, the Air Missile Defense Radar , which is being developed for the new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers , is to be scaffolded. This would also enable the Zumwalt class to be used for missile defense.

Particular emphasis was placed on short maintenance times and large maintenance intervals. The radar systems are installed within the superstructure and are therefore easily and quickly accessible. According to Raytheon, the radars only need 100 hours of maintenance per year of use, the mean time to recover is given as 30 minutes. Operation is also highly automated.

A dual-band sonar system is also integrated, which consists of a bow-mounted high-frequency sonar for mine hunting and a medium to low-frequency sonar for submarine hunting . There is also a multifunctional towing sonar .

A CEC data link is used to communicate with friendly units .

IT infrastructure

On the warship there are 16 small, independent server rooms, the so-called "Electronic Modular Enclosures" (EME), which with dimensions of around 12 × 3.5 × 3 m accommodate a total of 235 server racks. The data processing runs completely on different Linux systems (e.g. Red Hat ).

crew

There will only be about 158 ​​crew members on board. Comparable ships such as the Ticonderoga class , which has even less displacement, need around 380 men to maintain their operational capability. The small number of crew members is made possible by a high degree of automation, which is achieved through the integration of technologies from the Smart Ship Project .

units

Surname shipyard Keel laying Launch delivery Commissioning
USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) Bath Iron Works November 17, 2011 October 28, 2013 Late 2014 15th October 2016
USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) May 23, 2013 June 21, 2016 April 2018 January 26, 2019
USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) January 30, 2017 December 9, 2018

Web links

Commons : Zumwalt class  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Navy Awards DDG 1000 Contracts. (No longer available online.) In: DefenseNews. Formerly in the original ; accessed on February 10, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.defensenews.com
  2. ↑ Progress of the DD (X) Destroyer Program (English)
  3. ^ Lewis Page: US Navy orders new electric hyper-kill railgun. In: The Register. February 18, 2009, accessed July 22, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b U.S. May Field Railgun on Zumwalt Destroyer. In: The Diplomat. March 1, 2016, accessed July 22, 2017.
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c34lxcAkW1E
  6. ↑ US Navy puts the most modern missile destroyer into operation. In: RT.com. October 16, 2016.
  7. ↑ US destroyer got stuck in the Panama Canal. In: Spiegel Online . 23rd November 2016.
  8. ↑ a b c d Norman Polmar: Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2005, ISBN 978-1-59114-685-8 . Pages 145 f.
  9. ↑ Navy Delays DD 21 Source Selection Decision. DoD press release. In: defenselink.mil. (English).
  10. ^ National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 , Title I — Procurement, pp. 69 f. ( Memento of February 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, English).
  11. ↑ DDG 1000 program will end at two ships. In: Navy Times .
  12. ↑ Lawmaker: Third DDG 1000 far from done deal. ( Memento from January 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Navy Times (English).
  13. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Missile Threat Helped Drive DDG Cut. In: Defense News. (English).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.defensenews.com
  14. ↑ Navy to seek third DDG 1000. ( Memento from September 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Navy Times (English).
  15. ↑ House, Senate agree to add third DDG 1000. ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Navy Times (English).
  16. ^ All DDG 1000 construction moves to Bath. ( Memento from September 9, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Navy Times .
  17. ↑ a b Zumwalt - the Newest Destroyer for the USN is Launched. In: defense-update.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 .
  18. ↑ a b Dieter Stockfisch: DDG-1000 received SM-6. In: esut.de. European Security & Technology, November 1, 2018, accessed December 20, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Tom Philpott & Stephen Saunders: Jane's Fighting Ships 2015-2016. 2015. p. 994. ISBN 0-7106-3143-X
  20. ↑ Spiegel online November 10, 2016, stealth ship "Zumwalt" US destroyer fired $ 800,000 - per shot
  21. ↑ New Warship's Big Guns Have No Bullets - Defensenews.com, November 6, 2016
  22. ↑ NAVSEA Details At Sea 2016 Railgun Test on JHSV Trenton. In: News.USNI.org. April 14, 2015, accessed November 27, 2016.
  23. ^ Lewis Page: US Navy orders new electric hyper-kill railgun. In: The Register. February 18, 2009 (English).
  24. ^ From Research to Railgun: Revolutionary Weapon at Future Force EXPO. In: navy.mil. United States Navy, January 13, 2015, accessed November 27, 2016.
  25. ↑ Kyle Mizokami: The Zumwalt Destroyer Is Here, Now What About the Railgun? In: Popularmechanics.com. October 19, 2016, accessed July 22, 2017.
  26. ↑ Tyler Rogoway: The Navy's Railgun Gigantic Is Almost Ready For Prime Time. In: Foxtrot Alpha. February 6, 2015, accessed November 27, 2016.
  27. ↑ Sidney E. Dean: Page no longer available , search in web archives: The invisible destroyer. In: y-punkt.de. Y - Das Magazin der Bundeswehr, December 18, 2014, accessed July 22, 2017.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.y-punkt.de
  28. ^ Railgun Update from General Atomics. In: Military.com. April 14, 2011, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  29. ↑ NAVSEA Details At Sea 2016 Railgun Test on JHSV Trenton In: News.USNI.org. April 14, 2015, accessed November 27, 2016.
  30. ↑ a b page no longer available , search in web archives: Description of the dual band radar at Raytheon (PDF; 265 kB, English).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.raytheon.com
  31. ^ Military and Aerospace Navy on the verge of major shipboard electronics breakthroughs. In: militaryaerospace.com. March 1, 2010, accessed January 3, 2010.
  32. ↑ Ferdinand Thommes: The newest warship of the US Navy runs under Linux In: Pro-Linux.de. 21st October 2013.
  33. ↑ US Navy puts the most modern rocket destroyer "Zumwalt" into operation. In: RT.com. October 16, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .
  34. ^ Future USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) Keel Authenticated. In: navy.mil. US Navy, accessed February 10, 2014 .
  35. ↑ US Navy has a new warship - without a cannon. April 25, 2018, accessed May 9, 2018 .
  36. ↑ Webcast: USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) Commissioning. In: dvidshub.net. January 26, 2019, accessed January 26, 2019 .
  37. ^ Last Zumwalt-class ship launched as USN considers fate of destroyers' guns, Janes, December 11, 2018


This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 2, 2008 .