The Navy's Colossal Stealth Destroyer Heads Out to Sea
BATH, Maine (AP) The largest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy headed out to sea for the first time Monday, departing from shipbuilder Bath Iron Works and carefully navigating the winding Kennebec River before reaching the open ocean where the ship will undergo sea trials.
More than 200 shipbuilders, sailors and residents gathered to watch as the futuristic 600-foot, 15,000-ton USS Zumwalt glided past Fort Popham, accompanied by tugboats.
Kelley Campana, a Bath Iron Works employee, said she had goose bumps and tears in her eyes.
"This is pretty exciting. It's a great day to be a shipbuilder and to be an American," she said. "It's the first in its class. There's never been anything like it. It looks like the future."
Why is something larger than a Balitmore- class gun cruiser called a destroyer
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)educating people, curing diseases, helping the poor, rebuilding our roads and bridges, developing the next generation of sustainable energy.
Nah, we spend it on new and expensive ways to kill people.
Kaleva
(36,342 posts)Angleae
(4,493 posts)Cruiser today means "destroyer with command facilities for an admiral."
unhappycamper
(60,364 posts)Last edited Wed Feb 3, 2016, 08:41 AM - Edit history (1)
The USS Zumwalt comes in around $7.5 billion dollars, which seems to be the trend in all the new stuff we want to build.
The USS Gerald R Ford cost $13.9 billion dollars and is only 80% complete. (The Navy took delivery of her last year - no projection on when this will be complete.)
Nor have I seen anything about when the Navy is going to shock test Ford-class machines or Zumwalt-class machines or Littoral Combat Ships.
Ka-ching.