USS Michael Monsoor (YouTube)
Press Herald: Navy struggles to find a place for Bath-built Zumwalt stealth destroyers
It wanted something that could operate close to shore, attacking land targets and providing support for ground troops. Then came the conflict in landlocked Afghanistan.
BRUNSWICK — To those who kept a close eye on the development of the Navy’s futuristic, next-generation destroyers, the Zumwalt-class program has been a disappointment to put it mildly.
In the early 2000s, the Navy proposed building 32 highly advanced stealth destroyers at Bath Iron Works, giving the shipyard’s workforce hope for years of work to come. But as the years wore on, the number of ships ordered was slashed. And then slashed again. Ultimately, the Navy ordered just three ships – the second of which the Navy recently commissioned in San Diego.
With the Zumwalts now nearing the end of their brief production line, the Navy is tasked with incorporating them into its strategy – a difficult task given that the Zumwalts were built for a mission the Navy no longer views as a priority.
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WNU Editor: It is hard to believe that in the early 2000s the U.S. Navy proposed building 32 of these highly advanced stealth destroyers.
Mayport, San Diego, & Norfolk
ReplyDeleteThey can easily fill a mission.
"Can you see me now?" and as testbeds.
1 or 2 decades of that and then quietly withdraw them.
Looks like it might be a fairly good ice breaker, for not too deep ice that is.
ReplyDelete#BobBAsicTECHFAIL!
ReplyDeleteIf we build enough of these things we can line them up along the border, they look to be difficult to climb, but would be less offensive than a wall or fence.
ReplyDeleteI think they would be better prison. We could bunk repeat border crossers on those ships after they are stripped down and then sit the ship on the equator.
ReplyDelete