[Scourge of Ages]

The low-to-the-water warship will feature a wave-piercing hull, composite deckhouse, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar, missiles, and powerful guns that fire rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. It's also longer and heavier than existing destroyers — but will have half the crew because of automated systems.
[...]
The Zumwalt's 155 mm deck guns were built to pound the shore with guided projectiles to pave the way for the Marines to arrive in landing craft, and they're far more cost-effective in certain situations than cruise missiles, said Eric Wertheim, author of the "Naval Institute's Guide to Combat Fleets of the World."
The smaller crew also represents a substantial cost savings, he added.
Down the road, the ship could one day be equipped with an electromagnetic railgun, a powerful weapon that uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at several times the speed of sound.

See also: http://weapons.technology.youngester.com/2009/09/ddg-1000-zumwalt-destroyers-in-photos.html



Remind you of anything?

[General Battuta]

there were a lot more than three fenrises

e: given how fast those fenrises blew up though, they were probably comparable on the expensive boondoggle scale. dd zumwalt: at least it's not the lcs

[Rodo]

Dammit, that's an ugly concept art for a deadly weapon.

[deathfun]

Dammit, that's an ugly concept art for a deadly weapon.

No kidding

But really, after watching Stargate for the past year, I've come to adopt this whole "there's bigger things than what we've got on this here planet" mentality thus making me ask why
Although railgun... very cool

[Mika]

Interesting. They have selected to use composites in the hull. I'll guess that probably the rest of the Armed Forces in the world just wait and see what happens. Battleships of this design failed in the war between Russia and Japanese due to poor damage control and hull stability problems while maneuvering.

I'm kind of drawn between whether I would cancel this thing immediately if I could, or supporting the engineers to push it even faster. While this thing is probably not well armored to trade a lot of blows, the funny thing here is that it probably doesn't even need to.

But I do note US Navy seems to be decreasing in the overall tonnage.

[The E]

Interesting. They have selected to use composites in the hull. I'll guess that probably the rest of the Armed Forces in the world just wait and see what happens. Battleships of this design failed in the war between Russia and Japanese due to poor damage control and hull stability problems while maneuvering.

That was when, 1904 to 1905? ISTR material science having made quite a few breakthroughs in the time since then....

[Mika]

Interesting. They have selected to use composites in the hull. I'll guess that probably the rest of the Armed Forces in the world just wait and see what happens. Battleships of this design failed in the war between Russia and Japanese due to poor damage control and hull stability problems while maneuvering.

That was when, 1904 to 1905? ISTR material science having made quite a few breakthroughs in the time since then....

Yes I know, but the Physics have not changed either. Plus the latest attempt to do a stealth ship with large amount of composite materials seems to have failed. F-22 has a lot of maintenance problems with the composites and other radar cross section reducing materials that makes it a lot less mission capable than originally thought of. I'm a little bit suspicious of the composite armors to be used in a ship since the environmental challenges are huge, salty water, temperature differences, low frequency vibration, scratching etc. Not to mention the possibility of getting shot at.

[The E]

I agree that the Zumwalt is a pretty extreme design, but Stealth in shipbuilding is a developed science. Modern frigate and destroyer classes like the dutch De Zeven Provincien class, the german F124 Sachsen class, the danish Iver Huitfeld class, or the norwegian Fridtjof Nansen and Skjold classes all incorporate stealth features in terms of their general hull design and hull composition.

[NGTM-1R]

Comparing a 1904/1905 wavepiercing design to a modern wavepiercing design is not a meaningful comment and should never have been treated as such.

[The E]

Agreed, my comments were more aimed at the materials used, not the general hull design. Should have been more clear there, I guess.

[Fury]

I agree that the Zumwalt is a pretty extreme design, but Stealth in shipbuilding is a developed science. Modern frigate and destroyer classes like the dutch De Zeven Provincien class, the german F124 Sachsen class, the danish Iver Huitfeld class, or the norwegian Fridtjof Nansen and Skjold classes all incorporate stealth features in terms of their general hull design and hull composition.

You forgot Finn's Hamina missile boat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamina_class_missile_boat

[NGTM-1R]

Even the Arleigh Burkes have some stealth considerations in their design, not enough to make them truly stealth but enough to make them much smaller on radar.

[Mefustae]

Or the awesome-looking Independence-class LCS. Love the trimaran design.

[General Battuta]

Or the awesome-looking Independence-class LCS. Love the trimaran design.

there it is! the worst ship

[NGTM-1R]

Or the awesome-looking Independence-class LCS. Love the trimaran design.

Looking awesome is about all it does, the LCS is a poor joke of a design in terms of capabilities.

Hey guys remember when our low-mix ships could actually do self-defense AAW? Good times.

[General Battuta]

Or the awesome-looking Independence-class LCS. Love the trimaran design.

Looking awesome is about all it does, the LCS is a poor joke of a design in terms of capabilities.

Hey guys remember when our low-mix ships could actually do self-defense AAW? Good times.

excuse me, the lcs has advanced defensive capabilities; when threatened, the warship dissolves on the molecular level

[NGTM-1R]

Something is very wrong when I want a Knox or Garcia back over what I actually have.

[pecenipicek]

* pecenipicek sighs in sadness...

at least you folks have some ships to be proud of. Croatian navy has a grand total of 5 missile boats, 2 of which were bought off from Finland. And thats about it. )if you want to read up)

[NGTM-1R]

Croatian navy has a grand total of 5 missile boats, 2 of which were bought off from Finland.

All of which are legitimately more capable warships than the goddamn LCS.

[General Battuta]

* pecenipicek sighs in sadness...

at least you folks have some ships to be proud of. Croatian navy has a grand total of 5 missile boats, 2 of which were bought off from Finland. And thats about it. )if you want to read up)

while it's not much of a navy, these missile boats do outperform the LCS in two key areas:

1. missile

2. boat