Zumwalt DDG 1000 the first Zumwalt Class Multi-Mission Destroyer is seen before its christening ceremony Saturday, April 12, 2014 at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The ship is named after Admiral Elmo “Bud” R. Zumwalt Jr., who served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1970-1974. (AP Photo/Joel Page)
The Navy is looking to install electromagnetic rail guns on all three of its absurdly expensive Zumwalt-class destroyers, making them that much more expensiver — and deadlier:
[Captain Mike] Ziv said Navy leaders believe the DDG 1000 is the right ship to house the rail gun but that additional study was necessary to examine the risks. A rigorous study on the issue should be finished by the end of this year, Ziv said.
“I think it’s an ideal platform. There is a little bit more work needed to understand the details,” he added.
The DDG 1000 is 65-percent larger than existing 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers with a displacement of 15,482 tons,.
The DDG 1000’s integrated power system, which includes its electric propulsion, helps generate up to 58 megawatts of on-board electrical power, something seen as key to the future when it comes to the possibility of firing a rail gun.
It is also possible that the weapon could someday be configured to fire from DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
“We’ve looked at ships as small as DDG 51s. It takes something of that size. This isn’t something you are going to put on an LCS,” Ziv added.
When I’m Secretary of the Navy, we won’t build any ships too small to be armed with electromagnetic rail guns. And we’re going to build a lot of ships.
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