What If a Modern Destroyer Fought at Midway? | USS Zumwalt vs Imperial Japanese Navy - video Dailymotion

What If

June 4th, 1942 — the Battle of Midway changes forever. Instead of Yorktown and Enterprise, the U.S. sends one ship from the future: the USS Zumwalt, a 15,000-ton stealth destroyer armed with radar-guided missiles and advanced sensors.  Can one modern warship defeat Japan’s entire carrier fleet? We explore how 21st-century technology would reshape one of WWII’s most decisive battles. #WhatIfWar #BattleOfMidway #USNavy #WWII #USSZumwalt #NavalHistory #AlternateHistory #MilitaryTechnology #ModernWarfare #ImperialJapaneseNavy #WarSimulation #StealthDestroyer #HistoryChannel #DefenseTech #NavalCombat

Transcript

00:00June 4th, 1942. Dawn breaks over the Central Pacific as waves of Japanese aircraft thunder

00:06toward Midway Atoll. Four aircraft carriers bristling with fighters and bombers. The largest

00:11naval strike force ever assembled. It's Japan's moment to finish what Pearl Harbor started,

00:17total destruction of the U.S. Pacific fleet. But let's change one thing. Slicing through the waves

00:24at impossible speed sits something that shouldn't exist for another 74 years, the USS Zumwalt,

00:30a 15,000-ton stealth destroyer from 2016, armed with weapons that could level cities and radar

00:38that can see tomorrow's weather. So what happens when the most advanced warship on Earth faces off

00:44against the Imperial Japanese Navy at their absolute peak? This isn't your great-grandfather's tin-can

00:50destroyer. The USS Zumwalt looks like it was designed by aliens who really hate enemy radar.

00:57Its angular tumblehome hull gives it the radar signature of a fishing boat despite being 620

01:04feet of pure technological terror. Here's what this floating supercomputer is packing.

01:0980 vertical launch system cells loaded with enough guided missiles to delete small countries from

01:15existence. We're talking SM-6 surface-to-air missiles that can swap planes out of the sky from 150 plus

01:22miles away. Tomahawk cruise missiles with a thousand mile range that can thread the needle through a

01:27window and explode exactly where you don't want them to. And ESSM point defense missiles for anything

01:35foolish enough to get close. But wait, there's more. Two 155 millimeter advanced gun systems that were

01:42supposed to fire precision rounds 80 plus miles away. Unfortunately, those miracle shells cost more

01:49than a Lamborghini each. So they got canceled. The guns are basically expensive paperweights.

01:56Whoops. The ship's brain is an AN and SPY-3 radar array that can track hundreds of targets simultaneously

02:03while brewing coffee and calculating your taxes. It sees everything, tracks everything,

02:09and can guide missiles to hit a golf ball traveling at 600 miles per hour. Powered by 78 megawatts of

02:17electric power, enough to light up a small city, this thing cruises at 30 plus knots while making less

02:22noise than a library. In 1942, it's essentially a time-traveling war machine operated by wizards.

02:30But even this behemoth won't quite turn Midway back into your typical Thursday because Admiral Yamamoto

02:36isn't messing around. He brought the crown jewels of the Imperial Japanese Navy, four fleet carriers that

02:43attacked Pearl Harbor six months ago. Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hairayu, floating airports packed with 272 of

02:53Japan's best pilots flying Zeros, Kates, and Vals. These aren't just any carriers. They're the most

03:00experienced naval aviators on the planet, fresh off conquering half the Pacific. Their Mitsubishi

03:06A6M Zero fighters are fast, agile, and flown by pilots who've been perfecting their craft since

03:12the 1930s. Supporting this aerial armada are battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, over 100

03:19warships total. The battleship Yamamoto lurks in the distance, armed with 18-inch guns that can lob shells

03:26the size of Volkswagens. But here's the thing. These ships fight like it's 1942. Probably because it is

03:341942. We're talking visual spotting, primitive radar, and manual fire control. They have to see

03:41their targets to shoot them, and their longest-range weapons reach maybe 25 miles on a good day.

03:47The Zumwalt can kill them from the next zip code. At 0430 hours, the first wave of Japanese aircraft

03:55lifts off from their carriers, 108 planes strong. They're heading for Midway, flying in tight formation,

04:01confident in their numerical superiority. 100 miles away, the Zumwalt's SPY-3 radar lights them up like

04:08Christmas trees. The ship's combat system processes the threat in microseconds. The result? Target

04:14practice. The Japanese pilots have no idea they're about to become history's most one-sided turkey

04:21shoot. The first SM-6 missile streaks into the dawn sky at Mach 3.5. Then another. And another.

04:28These aren't the crude rockets of 1942. They're fire-and-forget guided munitions that think

04:34thousands of times faster than you or me, even if we had more than two brain cells. One second,

04:40the Japanese formation is pristine, facing an empty horizon. The next, state-of-the-art planes turn into

04:46clouds of dust for no apparent reason. The enemy seems invisible, but in reality is simply shooting

04:52so far they have to account for the curve of the Earth. Good luck explaining that, flat-earthers.

04:58Put lightly, for a Japanese pilot, this is f***ing terrifying. Panic spreads through the formation like

05:04wildfire. Pilots bank desperately, searching for the invisible threat. Some dive toward the water,

05:10others climb for altitude. The tight attack formation descends rapidly into chaos. Meanwhile,

05:15the Zumwalt tracks every single aircraft while calmly launching more missiles, its computer brain

05:20doesn't hesitate and definitely doesn't miss. To the Zumwalt, hand-delivering trained fighter pilots

05:26to God-by-the-dozen is a normal Thursday. By the time the survivors reach Midway, and if the floating

05:33doomsday is feeling generous, about half the attack force has mysteriously vanished. The remainder

05:39drops their bombs haphazardly before fleeing back toward their carriers, reporting impossible losses,

05:44and blaming a ghost. Admiral Nagumo, aboard the carrier Akagi, receives the survivors' reports with

05:51growing alarm. It sounds like a mass hallucination, but starts to become very real when exactly zero of

05:59the missing planes fly back from the afterlife. He orders the second wave to launch immediately,

06:04170 more planes racing toward what they think is just Midway Atoll. Bad call. The Zumwalt has moved

06:11to intercept, its stealth hole invisible to 1942 eyes and radar. The destroyer's crew watches the

06:19incoming formation on their screens like it's a video game, because to them, it basically is.

06:24More SM-6 missiles shriek skyward. Japanese Zeros, the terror of the Pacific, disintegrate like paper

06:31airplanes in a hurricane. Kate torpedo bombers, loaded with ordnance for attacking ships, become flying

06:37fireballs before they even know they're under attack. The psychological effect is devastating.

06:43Veteran pilots who've dominated every sky they've flown suddenly find themselves helpless against an

06:49enemy they can't see or fight, let alone beat. With the air threat neutralized, the Zumwalt goes on the

06:55offensive. Its Tomahawk cruise missiles don't need a direct line of sight. They can fly 900 plus miles,

07:01navigate around obstacles, and arrive exactly where they're least welcome.

07:05The destroyer launches a salvo of cruise missiles toward the Japanese carrier's last known position.

07:11These missiles streak across the ocean at 550 miles per hour, 50 feet above the waves,

07:16invisible even to radar systems decades later. Akagi's lookouts spot what looks like a small

07:22aircraft approaching fast and low. Too late. The Tomahawk's 1,000-pound warhead detonates against

07:29the carrier's side, punching through steel plating and igniting aviation fuel stores. The carrier

07:35erupts in flames. Within minutes, the ship that helped bomb Pearl Harbor is a floating inferno.

07:41Akagi suffers the same fate. Then Soryu. The missiles arrive without warning, guided by computers

07:48more advanced than anything 1942 can imagine. Each hit is devastating, precise, and lethal.

07:54But even gods have limits. The Zumwalt carries 80 missiles total. Impressive, but finite. After

08:02destroying aircraft and crippling their carriers, its magazines start running low. More critically,

08:08it's fighting in 1942 and there are no GPS satellites to guide its weapons. There are no data links to

08:15coordinate with other units, and there are no spare parts. The crew has to rely on their ship's onboard

08:21sensors and their training, and pray nothing breaks too soon. And there's still the Japanese submarine

08:27threat. I-168 lurks somewhere beneath the waves, armed with a Type 95 torpedo. A single lucky shot

08:34could cripple even the Zumwalt, and while it's invisible to 1942 radar, to a periscope, the floating

08:41behemoth is hard to miss. The destroyer's sonar gives it a huge advantage in sub-hunting, but submarines

08:48are patient. One mistake or moment of inattention, and the future's most advanced warship could join the

08:53party at the bottom of the Pacific. When the smoke clears, and assuming I-168 has been spotted,

09:00the Battle of Midway has become the most lopsided naval victory in history. Four Japanese fleet

09:07carriers are sunk or sinking, hundreds of irreplaceable pilots are gone, and Japan's offensive capability in

09:14the Pacific is annihilated in a single morning, all while you could count American losses on one hand.

09:22The ship would be remembered as the Phantom of Midway, some 74 years of military advancement that

09:29would compress Japan's defeat from years into hours. If you're curious what would happen if a modern tank

09:35landed at Normandy on D-Day, check this video out, and I'll see you next week.

What If a Modern Destroyer Fought at Midway? | USS Zumwalt vs Imperial Japanese Navy

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