US Zumwalt destroyers will be upgraded, focusing on anti-ship role instead of ground attack.
The US Navy is taking a major turnaround in the mission of the Zumwalt stealthy cruise destroyer. Instead of bombarding inland targets, the most modern US warships will turn to the task of destroying enemy surface ships. Experts say the change reflects strategic change in the context of the growing Russian and Chinese navy, according to Popular Mechanics.
After the end of the Cold War, the Russian navy no longer threatened the United States under Soviet rule. With the absence of competition at sea, the United States began to divert its attention to the land war. By the 2000s, the US Navy wanted to build a new destroyer class to support ground combat operations after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
As a result, the stealthy Zumwalt destroyer was born with a secret mission close to the enemy coast to bombard the target with two 155 mm AGS cannon. The US Navy wanted to own 32 destroyers of this type, but the cost was too high for the force to only order three and without special long-range ammunition for the AGS.
While the United States engaged in land battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, Russia and China invested heavily to strengthen their maritime power, challenging the naval dominance of the United States. Military expert David Ax assesses the transfer of duties from ground attack to destroyer shows that the US Navy officially acknowledged defeat in the original design of the Zumwalt stealth destroyer.
The price of one Zumwalt class is more than $ 4 billion, causing the US Navy to cut the number to three to focus on the Arleigh Burke class. In addition, LLPAP for AGS artillery also cost close to $ 1 million per head, leaving the US Navy to cease production when only 90 were shipped last year. Currently, USS Zumwalt, the first ship of the Zumwalt class, still has no ammunition for the AGS.
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AGS artillery unit during the USS Zumwalt shipbuilding. Photo: US Navy.
The advanced stealth design allows the destroyer Zumwalt to be closer to its target than a conventional warship, but it must work alone to avoid being exposed by nearby ships. However, the lack of long-range weapons makes it easy for Zumwalt to operate independently.
By the end of 2017, the USS Zumwalt was lost in the US Navy when it was not stationed in any particular unit, with no weapons and no clear mission. The change of mission to the destroyer may change this situation, but it is unclear what improvements will be made.
One effective solution was to abandon the AGS and replace it with 100 vertical (VLS) Mk. 41. Each launcher can carry either a long-range cruise missile (LRASM) or a multitasking missile (JSM) missile, which helps Zumwalt become a powerful destroyer.
The state-of-the-art communication and networking capabilities of the Zumwalt class enable it to receive target data from military equipment such as satellites, MQ-4 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, P-8A reconnaissance aircraft, and injections. Click F / A-18E / F, surface and submarine.
The US Navy has ignored anti-ship missions for nearly 20 years, leaving many destroyers unarmed. The transformation of the Zumwamt supersonic destroyer into a killer flagship demonstrates that the force is paying attention to missions from the Cold War, military expert Kyle Mizokami said.
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