The Zumwalt class of stealth destroyers, built at Bath Iron Works, are under fire from Congress for failed systems, according to a new national security analysis.
The Zumwalt fleet, the first member of which was launched from Bath in 2013, is now slated for weapons modernizations.
The $22 billion program with its reported problems is prompting Congress to wonder whether the ship’s concept was such a good idea in the first place.
The USS Zumwalt was the largest and most costly destroyer ever built in the U.S.
Before it even started to build the first of three Zumwalts, Bath Iron Works had to spend $40 million to make a special facility just to produce the ships.
“That gives you an idea of the magnitude of the program and its expenses,” says Brent Eastwood of National Security Journal. “The entire program ballooned to 50 percent greater cost than expected.”
Eastwood, a former Army infantry officer and aide to Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, lays out the Zumwalt fleet problems and planned fixes in his analysis.
The Navy plans to salvage the troubled Zumwalt-class destroyers by arming them with Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles by 2030.
“Difficult as the path may be to get there, it could save a troubled, expensive program that has yet to live up to its potential,” Eastwood said.
The Mach +5 hypersonic glide missiles that are replacing the fleet’s failed 155mm advanced main gun systems would be the first-sea based hypersonic weapon.
The Zumwalts were designed as next-generation, multi-mission destroyers that would lean on stealth to better survive against enemy ships and planes.
“The Navy once wanted 32 of these destroyers, but the cost overruns were prohibitive, and only three were built,” Eastwood said. “The ships are also maintenance-heavy and expensive to keep in the water.”
Besides the main guns being expensive and failing to live up to expectations, “some critics have wondered if the money sunk into the Zumwalt-class would have been better spent building more submarines,” he added.
The three Zumwalts were once considered so stealthy that they would appear as small fishing boats on radar.
They have a distinct shape to absorb radar waves, with smooth curves and none of the sharp edges that would set off enemy sensors.
Besides the nameplate USS Zumwalt, the fleet includes the USS Michael Monsoor, which Bath launched in 2016, and the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, in 2018.
During sea trials in 2015, the first Zumwalt responded to a U.S. Coast Guard call for assistance for a fishing boat captain who was experiencing a medical emergency 40 miles off Portland.
Due to deck conditions, the Coast Guard helicopter was unable to hoist the patient from the fishing boat, so Zumwalt’s crew used their rigid-hulled inflatable boat to transfer him to the destroyer, from which he was transported to shore by the Coast Guard helicopter and then to a hospital.
