USS Zumwalt (first stealth destroyer) leaves dry dock

[FordGT90Concept]

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/...avy-launches-new-stealth-destroyer/?hpt=hp_t2
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/21/navy-largest-destroyer-heading-into-water-in-maine/

Oh, it's the USA's largest destroyer too (100 feet longer than the current gen destroyer).

It features an unusual wave-piercing hull, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar and guided missiles, and a new gun that fires rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. Unlike warships with towering radar- and antenna-laden superstructures, the Zumwalt will ride low to the water to minimize its radar signature, making it stealthier than others.

Originally envisioned for shore bombardment, the ship's size and power plant that can produce 78 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 78,000 homes — make it a potential platform for futuristic weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun, which uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound.

There are so many computers and so much automation that it'll need fewer sailors, operating with a crew of 158, nearly half the complement aboard the current generation of destroyers.

At 610 feet long and 81 feet wide, the Zumwalt is longer and thinner than the USS Arizona, a battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor. But it weighs about half as much.

"It has the radar cross-section of a fishing boat," said Chris Johnson a spokesperson for Naval Sea Systems Command.

It is powered by Linux.

 

[v12dock]

apt-get install USSZumwalt

 

[Peter1986C]

It does not have apt, as it is obviously not Debian based but custom (I bet there is a lot of use of Linux for Embeded due all the microcontrolers and so on).

 

[Nordic]

I want to know what the railgun would use as ammo.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I can see it, I thought it was supposed to be stealth

 

[Solaris17]

It does not have apt, as it is obviously not Debian based but custom (I bet there is a lot of use of Linux for Embeded due all the microcontrolers and so on).

this is obviously a gentoo based system

 

[MilkyWay]

Why make a Destroyer that big?

 

[Peter1986C]

this is obviously a gentoo based system

Either that, or Linux from scratch a.k.a. entirely "home made" distro.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I want to know what the railgun would use as ammo.

Just a cylindrical hunk of metal:

Anything moving at mach 6+ is going to do a ton of damage on impact.


Zumwalt will be equipped with artillery that is a cross between a rocket and canon. They're shot out like a normal canon but they have a rocket engine that sends them to 60+ miles and guides them into their target. They're much cheaper than Tomahawks and can't really be intercepted either.

The engines in the Zumwalt produce 75 MW of electricity to power, some day, the railguns that still aren't finalized. The railguns should be able to fire in excess of 100 miles and even cheaper than the artillery rockets Zumwalt will be equipped to fire soon.

Why make a Destroyer that big?

I don't really know. It is longer than the Pennsylvania-class battleship but not as wide. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the hull's sea performance. A long, thin hull can move faster through the water than a short, wide hull.

 

[Fourstaff]

Just a cylindrical hunk of metal:
http://asset-7.soup.io/asset/0029/1860_78fe_960.jpeg

What is "Velocitas Eradico" mean?

So how often do we need to recoat this ship to mantain "small fishing boat" silhouette?

As a side note, IIrc this ship is powered by two modified Rolls Royce engines which are used by Boeing 777.

 

[DanishDevil]

Wikipedia: Railgun

They gave the project the Latin motto "Velocitas Eradico", which is Latin for "I, [who am] speed, eradicate", but may have been intended as "Speed kills" or similar.

 

[Cruise51]

Interesting that they took this long to develop stealth destroyers. Other countries have had stealth destroyers for many years. USA is usually the leader in stealth tech.... (Planes, Submarines, etc)

 

[entropy13]

Capt. James A. Kirk is the prospective commanding officer of the USS Zumwalt.

http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg1000/Pages/bio1.aspx

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So how often do we need to recoat this ship to mantain "small fishing boat" silhouette?

I imagine 90% of the cross-section comes from its design. The remaining 10% is likely the RAM surface. I have no idea how much maintenance it requires but I suspect that's something a congressional committee will be discussing in the coming years.

As a side note, IIrc this ship is powered by two modified Rolls Royce engines which are used by Boeing 777.

Yup, two Rolls-Royce MT30s. The US Navy seems to like them because they are in the Littoral combat ships as well.

Interesting that they took this long to develop stealth destroyers. Other countries have had stealth destroyers for many years. USA is usually the leader in stealth tech.... (Planes, Submarines, etc)

Their cross-sections are much, much larger than the Zumwalt even though the Zumwalt is substantially larger and more capable than them. The Navy also insisted on not commissioning a new destroyer until they had new weapons systems for it. They couldn't really finalize the design until they knew the power requirements for these (they settled on rail guns) systems.

The Zumwalt's research goes all the way back to the Lockheed Sea Shadow.


Here she is getting her sea legs:

Note how there isn't a mess of antennas nor large vents on her unlike, say Sweden's Visby-class:

Even at cruising speed, Zumwalt is designed to produce little external sound, little external heat, a small wake, and to be a very stable firing platform (how else can you accurately shoot 100 miles?). And did I mention she is massive?

 

[Nordic]

Hey Ford, do you know how much of the ship remains under the surface. Is it ~60% or... I don't know.

 

[the54thvoid]

Interesting that they took this long to develop stealth destroyers. Other countries have had stealth destroyers for many years. USA is usually the leader in stealth tech.... (Planes, Submarines, etc)

She was finished years ago - they just lost her in the boat yard because the technology worked so well.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Hey Ford, do you know how much of the ship remains under the surface. Is it ~60% or... I don't know.

You can see about where the water line is in the OP picture. The red is under water, the dark gray is about where she is supposed to ride once her arms and munitions are installed, and the light gray is above the water level. She doesn't ride very deep at all.

 

[Frick]

Should've stuck with Windows NT.

Joking aside, needs more black paint.

EDIT: And in the civilized world, that's 185 x 25 m.

 

[Steevo]

Should've stuck with Windows NT.

Joking aside, needs more black paint.

EDIT: And in the civilized world, that's 185 x 25 m.

Yay an advanced warship to protect us against? Aliens? France? Middle Eastern extremists? PETA protests? Russian warships? US citizens in costal cities?

Not sure what its use is in the age where there are drones, ICBM's, and subs.


Wait.....this just in, instead of medical help or improving the economy we are going to spend this money on ships that do little to no good but make power hungry fat cats feel like important men.


Only 7 BILLION EACH WHAT A GREAT DEAL!!!!!


Do we want to wage war for 30 Billion MORE dollars over the next 10 years plus all the support crew, maintenance, test firing, and typical military waste? Or cure diseases that kill far more people?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Zumwalt serves two primary purposes:
1) Protect aircraft carriers by destroying surface ships and submarines.
2) Bombard inland targets during war and do it without using costly Tomahawks (although it still has that option should the need arise).

Building ships like these are great for the Maine economy...and what does Maine have besides shipbuilding?

Zumwalt has half the crew compliment that Arleigh Burke-class destroyers do.

Only three Zumwalts were ordered: the first is expected to cost $7 billion, the second $3.5 billion, and the third $2.5 billion. By contrast, there are 13 outstanding orders for new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at $1.8 billion each.

I think DOD is making these ships and aircraft like the F-22 so, in the event that a major war breaks out, they could go into mass production of them. They're essentially research projects (for now) with production numbers too small to have a major impact on a war effort.


Fun fact: Arleigh Burke destroyers produce 80 MW of power from four engines compared to Zumwalt destroyer's 78 MW of power from two engines.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

As to the question of ammunition, anything from carbon blocks to metal cylinders. The material has to be relatively conductive, but that's the only requirement.

A railgun works by producing a huge magnetic field within coils, then inducing an opposing field in the projectile. The projectile is not fixed, so rather than heat up the opposing magnetic field yields a substantial linear motion. As the soldiers in Mass Effect said, Newton was the most bad a$$ motherf###er ever. The kinetic energy of a projectile is equal to half the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity (ek=1/2*m*v^2), so a very fast moving mass has an insane amount of energy that needs to be dissipated.


Let's take a macabre example. You've got a human being, who has a terminal velocity of 200 kph (56 mps) and a mass of 90 kg (I'm using metric, but the imperial system is so tempting to annoy the rest of the world). You calculate that the kinetic energy is therefore 141 KJ. When that human hits the ground they make a very large dent. Now, you've got a projectile being accelerated to mach 4, or 1361 mps (let's go on the low side). To have the same energy as the human it only needs to have a mass of 0.15 kg. So my American compatriots understand, a terminal velocity (125 mph, 200 lbs) person would have the equivalent energy of a 1/3 pound projectile at mach 4.

Let's extrapolate that to a 10 pound iron rod at mach 6, and you get the kind of insane destructive potential that we're looking at. Thermite may melt armor. Plastic explosives may shatter armor. Kinetic energy vaporizes armor, assuming that it doesn't punch through it like a cannon through a butter wall. My only question is how many times will this thing be used before it's determined to be a force of terror as much as a weapon. Knowing that any building within line of sight of the water can be demolished without any warning makes me afraid to live anywhere near the coast.

 

[Fourstaff]

As to the question of ammunition, anything from carbon blocks to metal cylinders.

You don't really want carbon blocks, it will completely burn to nothing before it leaves the barrel.

 

[RCoon]

You don't really want carbon blocks, it will completely burn to nothing before it leaves the barrel.

Not to mention it isnt quite as conductive as other metals. I remember making a Rail Gun during my college days. A car battery, several industrial capacitors, a huge copper coil wrapped around a plumbing pipe with a bore no bigger than a screwdriver head, and chopped up screwdriver heads. They are amazing weapons, but the energy requirement is their downfall, and obviously is the main issue with making a portable handheld railgun. The charging period from something like a car battery (which is pretty heavy), hooked up to at least 2 or 3 capacitors is less effective than old fashioned gunpowder and lead. However the projectile has far more destructive force, similar to dumdum bullets.

Pretty much anyone can make a railgun with household items and a little physics know how.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I'm not sure what you guys were doing, but I've seen carbon blocks used for testing.

Again, a college level senior project I got to see used milled carbon blocks. The point was not to create destruction, and the velocity of the projectile was only about mach 1.6. The carbon does have the tendency to burn, but the extremely low mass means a greater acceleration.

As far as conductivity, doesn't really matter. Carbon can conduct just as well as some metal.


So, as a weapon a carbon rod isn't exactly a great idea. At the same time you may want to tailor a projectile for certain kinds of uses. There are armor piercing bullets, incendiary ones, and softer ones to prevent ricochet. It seems like the same thing can be done with railgun projectiles.

 

[RCoon]

I'm not sure what you guys were doing, but I've seen carbon blocks used for testing.

Again, a college level senior project I got to see used milled carbon blocks. The point was not to create destruction, and the velocity of the projectile was only about mach 1.6. The carbon does have the tendency to burn, but the extremely low mass means a greater acceleration.

As far as conductivity, doesn't really matter. Carbon can conduct just as well as some metal.


So, as a weapon a carbon rod isn't exactly a great idea. At the same time you may want to tailor a projectile for certain kinds of uses. There are armor piercing bullets, incendiary ones, and softer ones to prevent ricochet. It seems like the same thing can be done with railgun projectiles.

You make a good point, not to mention Carbon rods are cheaper to use en masse than most metals. I know a physics professor who bakes his own carbon compounds in a kiln for magnetic purposes.

 

[KainXS]

and here I was thinking kirk would get his enterprise(CVN-80)