USS Zumwalt

Interesting stuff.

I remember the controversy with the death of his son.

Thanks CT.

 

Since that ship was built here in Maine at Bath Iron Works (BIW), it will be interesting to see if this fiasco in the Panama Canal will have any kind of impact on the shipyard's future work with the Navy. Fortunately, the ship did finally make it up to San Diego which will be its' homeport.
FMI, see http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=98029

 

I don't think it will have a impact.

We have precious few shipyards left to build ships of war. In WW2 we were about 400 to 600 yards capable of building ships of all kinds around the USA under Government Control for the duration of the war. I think there are only about 12 or so around the USA still capable of working on warships and about 3 or 4 capable of fixing Carriers or building them (Which there is only one, Norfolk)

At present Truman CV Group is in Western Med and absolutely ALL other Carriers are rotting in port on both coasts. Targets if you ask me. We build them things to be at sea 50 years and what did we do with them? Rust em out.

 

Who knows,maybe someone in the Navy will start another "41 For Freedom"program. Wishful thinking I know but there's always hope.

 

Wow, I bet he was an "interesting" person to speak with. I have never met a submariner that wasn't.

 

There is a Submarine tied up in the Arkansas river on the NLR bank. USS Razorback, It served in Turkey after seeing US Navy service before being sold to Arkansas for final resting place. We also have the Navy Tug that was present in Pearl Harbor, possibly the last ship afloat that was present there that day. Baltimore has the USS Torsk among other things.

All submariners are interesting people. They have to put up with so much that would break you and me. I have certain flaws related to claustrophobic spaces; call them mental defects that will disqualify me for that work even though there is no problem visiting and examining every little space inside a sub. It would be more to elevators, those things are good to the last drop I say.

Good luck!

 

@x1Heavy that much armor goes against the very basis of the Destroyer. Light, fast, maneuverable as all get out, and massively heavily armed (which the Zumwalt is NOT)

The Pacific Theater proved the effectiveness of destroyers (smaller, cheaper to build and crew) over the large old style battlewagons. Battleships can lay a lot of "lead on target", but they are sitting ducks to smaller, faster warships and planes. Fact of the matter is the more armor you put on, the slower the vessel is going to be.

The Zumwalt doesn't need more armor. She needs a more reliable power plant and control system, and to be packed to the gills with various explodey things that will destroy anything that gets close.

 

What kind of engines did they put in her? Gas turbines?

 

Yeah but the battleship is like a dinosaur, it can take hit after hit and still eat your ###. Just the thought of a Volkswagen sized shell filled with that explodey stuff coming down on you is pretty terrifying. You have to hand it to the Japanese, they took a pounding and kept coming for more.