The U.S. Navy's Super Stealth Destroyer Is Almost Ready for Battle

April 28, 2017 Topic: Security Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: MilitaryWorldTechnologyU.S.USS ZumwaltNavyZumwalt

The U.S. Navy's Super Stealth Destroyer Is Almost Ready for Battle

The new destroyer, called the USS Zumwalt, is a 610-foot land and surface warfare attack ship designed with a stealthy, wave-piercing “tumblehome” hull.

The DDG 1000 also has an AN/SPY-3 X-band multi-function radar which is described as volume-search capable, meaning it can detect threats at higher volumes than other comparable radar systems, Raytheon officials added.  The volume search capability, which can be added through software upgrades, enables the radar to detect a wider range of missile flight profiles, he added.

The ship will employ active and passive sensors along with its Multi-Function Radar capable of conducting area air surveillance, including over-land, throughout the extremely difficult and cluttered sea-land interface, Navy officials said.

Not only does the ship have a new electric drive system for propulsion as opposed to diesel or steam, but the ship is configured with sonar, sensors, electronics, computing technology and weapons systems that have not previously been engineered into a Navy destroyer or comparable ship, said Knudson.

The Zumwalt-class destroyers will have unprecedented mine-detecting sonar technologies for destroyers through utilization of what is called an integrated undersea warfare system, or IUW. IUW is a dual-band sonar technology that uses both medium- and high-frequency detection, Knudson added.

Medium-frequency sonar is engineered to detect ships and submarines, and high-frequency sonar adds the ability to avoid sea-mines, he added.

The DDG 1000 is designed to detect mines because the destroyer is, in part, being developed for land-attack missions, an activity likely to bring the vessel closer to shore than previous destroyers might be prepared to sail. The ship has a shallow draft to enable it to operate closer to shore than most deep-water ships.

As the first Zumwalt-class destroyer gets ready for service, construction of the second is already underway. The DDG 1001 is already more than 75 percent complete and fabrication of DDG 1002 is already underway, Navy officials said.

This first appeared in Scout Warrior here.