zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Beyond Cars
/
This Is The Navy's New Zumwalt-Class Destroyer Out At Sea For The Very First Time
This Is The Navy's New Zumwalt-Class Destroyer Out At Sea For The Very First Time-September 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:14:16

Pre-Commissioning Unit Zumwalt, soon to be known as the , is the United States Navy’s newest and most advanced surface warfare ship. It’s almost , with only three ships planned, only 60 percent of the crew of a regular destroyer, and enough power to feed and lasers that don’t even exist yet. Here it is on its first sea trials today, and just look at it.

The Zumwalt left the Bath Iron Works shipbuilding facility on the Kennebec river in Maine, like a from the future being pushed along the calm waters by staid, antiquated-looking tugboats.

Look at how she slices, look at how she dices! Look at how she seems to take millimeter-high waves…

Out at sea, its wave-piercing tumblehome hull continues to look a bit alien, as it’s designed to run through the ocean, rather than on top of it.

While most builders’ sea trials are relatively boring affairs, the Zumwalt’s sea trails are being closely watched thanks to that design, in which the sides of the hull slant inward as they go up from the waterline, rather than outward, as is the norm on most combat ships today.

Though once common in the 1800s, as it’s a great way to stack cannons, the design concept fell out of favor once turrets became the norm as it’s inherently less stable than other designs. Which is an issue, if you’re planning out an ocean-going vessel which can theoretically see the roughest of storms and can suffer serious underwater trauma.

But now we have things like computer-controlled stability systems and advanced modeling, and the Navy seems that it shouldn’t be a problem.

Although if it actually is a problem, and both the Navy and the ship’s builders are wrong, we’re about to find out.

Photos credit: Bath Iron Works, AP

Contact the author at .

PGP fingerprint: 0D03 F37B 4C96 021E 4292 7B12 E080 0D0B 5968 F14E

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Beyond Cars
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
2023 Zero DSR/X: The Bike Of The Future, But Not Our Future
The world, in 2023, is cyberpunk. We’ve got the , the , and the that keeps the and the . But in cyberpunk media, people are always riding . Why are we stuck with the same bikes we’ve always had? , it seems, wants to address this grievous wrong....
Sep 12, 2025
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
Deadliest Train In America Kills 3 People In 2 Separate Collisions At The Same Crossing
operate between Orlando and Miami and hold the unwelcome distinction of being both the first intra-city high speed rail in the U.S. and the , by far. After three people died at a single grade crossing in two separate incidents last week it seems the feds are finally perking...
Sep 12, 2025
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Marshmallow Treats Ended Up On The Royal Air Force's No-Fly List
Over in the United Kingdom, there’s a certain dessert known as a “teacake” — or, as a British friend kindly informed me, it’s more accurately known as a “Tunnock” in Scotland. Basically, the food in question for this particular story are actually a cookie base topped with marshmallow, coated...
Sep 12, 2025
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
Aircraft Touch Tips During Blizzard At Japanese Airport
As at , its port side wing the starboard vertical stabilizer of bound for Hong Kong. This comes at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, and . “Our aircraft, which was stationary at the time with no customers nor crew onboard, was struck by a Korean Air A330 which was taxiing past,”...
Sep 12, 2025
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
Crystal Chunks Are Bursting Through The Road In China
A video of what looks like quartz breaking through the surface of a is making the rounds on . I don’t get over there much, being suspicious of the Chinese over concerns of it spying on its users, as the reports. OK, fine. Actually, I just don’t get the humor...
Sep 12, 2025
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
String Of Boeing Failures Continues With 737-800 Flight Turning Back With Cracked Cockpit Windshield
In the wake of recent major , including , , and the debacle that was , it isn’t a good time for further failures by the company. that would , an unrelated 737-800 with a cracked windshield, became international news this weekend. The flight took off from Sapporo-New Chitose...
Sep 12, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved