The Reason US Navy Built Only 3 of These Weird Looking Destroyers

[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to the fluctus channel the united states navy being one of the most advanced in the world features a powerful fleet of modern combat vessels some of which are constructed with extremely high budgets despite its place as one of the strongest it continues to carry out research and innovation into newer and higher classes of weapons in november 2011 the u.s decided to build the zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer this uniquely shaped vessel was designed as a multi-role stealth ship to focus not only on land attack but also on surface and anti-aircraft warfare originally 32 of these massive destroyers were to be built on a research and development budget of 9.6 billion but the project never succeeded so much so that on the 15th of october 2016 instead of 32 only three were finally commissioned in today's feature let us explore the backstory of this unique class of naval vessels alongside a few other massive military projects whose original plans were never fully actualized stealth ships for naval gunfire support and anti-aircraft warfare have been in existence for more than a century however the constant development of highly advanced and modern vessels has been the backbone of the u.s navy [Music] but during the construction of the uss zumwalt it became clear that the construction project for this next generation destroyer class will not be fully achieved [Music] as the construction proceeded crossover ran estimates and the quantity was reduced to 24 then to 7 and finally to 3 significantly increasing the cost per ship to 4.24 billion by 2016 the total program cost was an outrageous 22.5 billion this dramatic per-unit cost increase eventually triggered a breach and cancellation of further production of the zumwalt-class warships nevertheless the first three that were constructed stood out as the finest in their class of naval vessels an unprecedented level of automation driven by the first of its kind total ship computing environment advancing the efficiency and operation of the ship while helping the navy to achieve its manning goals and a state the battle-resistant weapon launching system designed to fire missiles for sea land and air attacks but soon one of the advanced weapon systems on the uss zumwalt the advanced gun system or ags was in jeopardy the ags uses customized 155 millimeter ammunition with a range of over 50 nautical miles with separate projectile and propellant systems [Music] when the ags was conceived in 2004 the cost per round was estimated at 35 thousand dollars [Music] after reducing the number of ships from 32 to three the cost per round climbed to an astronomical 800 000 while looking for a replacement for the advanced gun system us naval experts considered fitting the uss lyndon b johnson the third of the zumwalt-class ships with a railgun an electrically powered weapon the large rolls-royce gas turbines producing 78 megawatts would have been sufficient to deliver the extremely high electrical currents for such a weapon but then the u.s navy cut the funding for the railgun as well in 2021 leaving the zumwalt class again without a viable weapon system meanwhile the funding for the canceled destroyers of the zumwalt class was redirected into the purchase of more arleigh burke class destroyers which were the us navy's initial fleet of guided missile destroyers the gun system on the arleigh burke class does by far fall short of the range of the ags but its proven technology and ammunition system is also very advanced also the cost of an arleigh burke class destroyer is just about one quarter of that of a zumwalt another example of a leading edge technology that faced a premature end is the seawolf class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines which was intended to succeed the los angeles class built from high yield strength hy 100 grade of steel and with a strengthened sail system it permitted operations under the arctic ice cap it was also equipped with the most advanced combat and sonar systems however its cost ran up to 3 billion per ship much higher than the previous generations of nuclear submarines when the cold war ended and global geopolitics started to change instead of 29 submarines that was originally envisioned production of the seawolf class was halted at the third submarine following this the navy opted for the development of a more cost-effective vessel which gave birth to the virginia class as of today more than 20 virginia-class submarines have been launched and another 19 already ordered by the u.s navy [Music] a similar fate as that of the zumwalt class befell the f-22 raptor the advanced tactical fighter jet conceived in the 1980s [Music] born in an era of emerging threats by new soviet air defense systems the f-22 raptor is a fast and highly maneuverable aircraft capable of operating at very high altitudes and reaching a top speed of mach 2.25 fitted with powerful afterburners the single-seat twin-engine all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft can reach targets faster even while flying in fuel economy mode originally planned as a batch of 750 aircraft the quantity was dropped to a mere 187 when the price per aircraft climbed from 35 million in 1985 to over 186 million in 2008 but the exploding costs were not the only problem of the f-22 continued trouble with its oxygen system and increasing fatal crashes were some of the contributing factors while any attempts to revive the f-22 program in later years have failed a new star appeared at the horizon the f-35 lightning ii a single-engine stealth multi-role combat aircraft conceived as a joint strike fighter that could also be exported to allied nations it had from the very beginning the potential to be produced in much higher numbers [Applause] more than 700 of these aircrafts have been built and delivered to customers worldwide with the us aiming for a total of about 2 500 f-35s in the coming years [Music] with an increased demand for this flying marvel across the world's defense forces the cost of the aircraft has dropped from 221 million in 2007 to just 79 million a piece [Music] instances such as these have proven that technological breakthroughs come at a price and as the world continues to advance in their quest for more sophisticated weaponry even abandoned projects like the zumwalt class of destroyers may one day be taken up again hopefully with greater and more cost-effective improvements [Music] that's the end of this video i hope you enjoyed it make sure to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss any of our new content see you next time [Music]

Channel: Fluctus

Views: 113,929

Keywords: Zumwalt class destroyer, copper oxide coating, US Navy, Bath Iron Works, General Dynamics, Destroyer, Guided Missile, Stealth Ship

Id: gcNTdnSuZCs

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2022