As I have mentioned, the US Navy can’t catch a break from the cavalcade of calamities that is Navy shipbuilding for two generations.

First they removed the 155mm gun when it was disclosed it was 800 thousand dollars a round Advanced Gun System (AGS) then it took five years (!) to launch its first missile from the Vertical Launch System (VLS) on deck. They were going to build 32 of these floating dumpsters but have only built three. Instead of blowing the $22.4 billion on researching and developing the Zumwalts, the money would have been better spent by not being spent.

The Zumwalts were designed as next-generation multi-mission destroyers that would lean on stealth to better survive against enemy ships and airplanes.

The Navy once wanted 32 of these destroyers, but the cost overruns were prohibitive, and only three were built. The ships are also maintenance-heavy and expensive to keep in the water.

The main gun was faulty. Some critics have wondered if the money sunk into the Zumwalt-class would have been better spent building more submarines.

The first of the class, the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), was the largest and most costly destroyer ever built. General Dynamics spent $40 million just to make a special facility to produce the ships. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of the program and its expenses. The entire program ballooned to 50 percent greater cost than expected.

Again, no one has been held accountable for these very expensive and slow “gun trucks” (30 knots) that will now haul around five Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) (50 million dollars each) that will be picked up very early by the sophisticated early detection systems of the Chinese off their landmass. Stealth can’t hide from long wave radar.

$22,000,000,000 Wasted? The Navy Has a Plan to Save the Zumwalt-Class Stealth Destroyer