BALTIMORE—What’s a ride like in the Navy’s largest and most sophisticated new destroyer? Capt. James Kirk compares it to “a really souped-up sport utility vehicle.”
“It’s not like a Ferrari, but it’s like a very big SUV that is made to go very fast,” says Kirk, commanding officer of the futuristic USS Zumwalt that’s being commissioned Saturday in Baltimore.
With a price tag of at least $4.4 billion, the guided missile destroyer is perhaps more like a stealthy Rolls-Royce. The company manufactured the ship’s propellers and generator sets. The Zumwalt also features an unconventional wave-piercing hull.
“Very smooth,” is how Lt. Cmdr. Nate Chase described the ride. “You had no fear of having an open cup of coffee and getting jerked around, like some of these other ships.”
Here are some other details about the Zumwalt:
Stealth
The 610-foot-long warship is sleek, with an angular shape to minimize its radar signature. It looks like a much smaller vessel on radar. Quieter than other ships, the Zumwalt is hard to detect, track and attack. A composite deckhouse hides radar and other sensors. Its powerful new gun system can unload 600 rocket-powered projectiles on targets more than 70 miles away.
Power
Weighing nearly 15,000 tons, the ship’s advanced technology and capabilities allow it a range of defensive and offensive missions to project power, wherever it is needed. Kirk says it generates 78 megawatts of power, “enough power to power a medium- to small-sized city.” With a motto of Pax Proctor Vim (Peace Through Power), it’s unique capability to generate power could be used in ways perhaps not even envisioned yet, such as in the testing and use of laser and directed-energy weapon systems.
