First Zumwalt Class Stealth Destroyer Joins U.S. Navy's Battle Force

The first Zumwalt Class stealth destroyers has has completed its combat system activation and subsequent sea trials, and will be counted towards the U.S. Navy’s battle force ship totals. The USS Zumwalt is the first ship of its class, which was initially planned at 32 destroyers but has since been reduced to just three due to considerable problems with the designs and substantial cost overruns. The destroyers will cost the Navy over $7 billion each, but have given American shipbuilders unique experience building heavyweight stealth warships which no other country currently has. The Zumwalt is the heaviest Western surface combat ship in service, and although initially intended to deploy considerable firepower the removal of its guns due to costing issues with ammunition and scaling down of its vertical launch system has provided far more modest firepower. The warships deploy 80 vertical launch cells each - considerably less than the Arleigh Burke Class and Ticonderoga Class ships which are the U.S. Navy’s other two heavyweight surface combatants. The Zumwalt has suffered from a number of serious performance issues including breakdowns at sea.

The USS Zumwalt had been assigned to the Surface Development Squadron 1, which will reportedly allow the Navy efforts to develop tactics and procedures for using the new class of destroyers alongside other types of ships. Zumwalt Commanding Officer Captain Andrew Carlson stated regarding the program: “Every day the ship is at sea, the officers and crew learn more about her capability, and can immediately inform the continued development of tactics, techniques, and procedures to not only integrate Zumwalt into the fleet, but to advance the Navy’s understanding of operations with a stealth destroyer... After sailing over 9000 miles and 100 days at sea in 2019, we are absolutely looking forward to more aggressive at-sea testing and validation of the combat systems leading to achievement of initial operational capability.” Although it has officially joined the fleet, the USS Zumwalt still has considerable trials ahead of it. The warships competed Combat System Availability in March 2020, and will undergo developmental and integrated at-sea testing of weapons.