{"id":28599,"date":"2014-11-10T00:03:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T05:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=28599"},"modified":"2014-11-08T13:30:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T18:30:22","slug":"a-critical-view-of-the-zumwalt-class-of-destroyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/11\/10\/a-critical-view-of-the-zumwalt-class-of-destroyers\/","title":{"rendered":"A critical view of the Zumwalt<\/em> class of destroyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

James R. Holmes<\/a> makes the case that the latest class of US Navy destroyers are already obsolete:<\/p>\n

\"BATH,

BATH, Maine (Oct. 28, 2013) The Zumwalt<\/em>-class guided-missile destroyer DDG 1000 is floated out of dry dock at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard. The ship, the first of three Zumwalt<\/em>-class destroyers, will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces and operate as part of joint and combined expeditionary forces. The lead ship and class are named in honor of former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., who served as chief of naval operations from 1970-1974. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of General Dynamics\/Released)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hie thee hence, sea fighters, to peruse Information Dissemination\u2018s take<\/a> on the U.S. Navy\u2019s Zumwalt<\/em>-class destroyer. Pseudo-pseudonymous pundit \u201cLazarus\u201d gives a nifty profile of the newfangled vessel. That\u2019s worth your time in itself. Though not in so many words, moreover, he depicts the attention-grabbing DDG-1000 stories of recent weeks and months as a red herring. Sure, Zumwalt<\/em> features a \u201ctumblehome\u201d hull that makes the ship look like the second coming of USS Monitor<\/em>. (This is not a compliment.) The hull tapers where it should flare and flares where it should taper. Zounds!<\/p>\n

Yet more than cosmetics occasions commentary. Some navy-watchers voice concern about tumblehome hulls\u2019 seakeeping ability in rough waters. Others question their ability to remain buoyant and stable after suffering mishaps or battle damage. That\u2019s a worry in a \u201cminimum manned\u201d ship that relies on automated damage control. (The very idea of automated firefighting and flooding control, and sparsely populated fire parties, sits poorly with this former fire marshal.) In any event, time will tell whether the naval architects got it right.<\/p>\n

Even if problems do come to light, Zumwalt<\/em> would be far from the first fighting ship to undergo modifications to remedy problems baked into her design. The flattop USS Midway<\/em>, for example, underwent repeated change over her long life \u2014 including to correct such maladies. Plus \u00e7a change<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Zumwalt<\/em>‘s secondary armament has made headlines as well. The navy recently opted to substitute lesser-caliber 30-mm guns for the 57-mm guns originally envisioned to empower the ship to duel small boats and light surface combatants. The smaller mount evidently meets performance parameters for close-in engagements that its bigger counterpart misses. This too is a controversy that, in all likelihood, will be settled once sea trials put the ship through her paces. Tempest, meet teapot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James R. Holmes makes the case that the latest class of US Navy destroyers are already obsolete: Hie thee hence, sea fighters, to peruse Information Dissemination\u2018s take on the U.S. Navy\u2019s Zumwalt-class destroyer. Pseudo-pseudonymous pundit \u201cLazarus\u201d gives a nifty profile of the newfangled vessel. That\u2019s worth your time in itself. Though not in so many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15,13],"tags":[86,140,174,30],"class_list":["post-28599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military","category-technology","category-usa","tag-criticism","tag-design","tag-innovation","tag-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7rh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28600,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599\/revisions\/28600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}