The Zumwalt-class destroyer was supposed to revolutionize naval warfare—but instead became one of the U.S. Navy’s most expensive disappointments. Now, armed with hypersonic missiles capable of striking targets 1,700 miles away at incredible speeds, the stealth warship is getting a second chance. Could this troubled program become the deadliest ship in the fleet, or is it another costly gamble? Discover how the Navy is transforming a billion-dollar mistake into a strategic weapon.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Zumwalt Class Destroyer Hypersonic Missile Upgrade
01:13 - Why US Navy Planned 32 Zumwalt Destroyers
03:30 - Zumwalt Destroyer Stealth Technology and Tumblehome Hull
07:42 - Why US Navy Canceled 22 Billion Destroyer Program
11:31 - Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic Missile Navy Integration
16:54 - Are Manned US Navy Destroyers Obsolete Against Drones?
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#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
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SOURCES / ATTRIBUTIONS: https://pastebin.com/dhH7pFyv
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Zumwalt Class Destroyer Hypersonic Missile Upgrade
01:13 - Why US Navy Planned 32 Zumwalt Destroyers
03:30 - Zumwalt Destroyer Stealth Technology and Tumblehome Hull
07:42 - Why US Navy Canceled 22 Billion Destroyer Program
11:31 - Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic Missile Navy Integration
16:54 - Are Manned US Navy Destroyers Obsolete Against Drones?
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES / ATTRIBUTIONS: https://pastebin.com/dhH7pFyv
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NewsTranscript
00:00The U.S. Navy has ruled the world's oceans for decades.
00:04Few would dispute that it remains by far the most capable naval force on the planet
00:08in terms of global blue water power projection.
00:11Its ability to deploy extensive strike groups in the Middle East,
00:15Caribbean and Indo-Pacific simultaneously at present speaks for itself.
00:20But let's be frank.
00:21In recent years, its groundbreaking new shipbuilding projects
00:25haven't always turned out as intended, to put it mildly.
00:28In particular, the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS,
00:32Constellation-class Frigate and Zumwalt-class Destroyer
00:35were all heralded as next-generation systems when they were conceived.
00:39But these high-profile programs ended up being scrapped,
00:43with only a few of the intended number of ships built.
00:46However, it wasn't all in vain, at least in the case of one of them,
00:50the stealthy, high-tech Zumwalt-class Destroyer.
00:53One of the Navy's biggest mistakes has found a new use case,
00:57potentially transforming a glaring white elephant
01:00into the deadliest warship in the U.S. fleet,
01:03a carrier of hypersonic missiles.
01:05Now, here's how these new missiles give the Zumwalt-class a new lease on life,
01:09and how that could add a special new arrow to the Navy's quiver.
01:13Hypersonic missiles.
01:15The move is innovative, topical, and exactly what the doctor ordered.
01:19A seasoned analyst and former congressional staffer,
01:22Brandon J. Wykert, wrote not too long ago,
01:25the Zumwalt-class destroyer failure can be summed up in two words,
01:29total disaster.
01:30Of course, it wasn't supposed to be like that.
01:33The Zumwalt-class, named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt,
01:37the chief of naval operations from 1970 to 1974,
01:41was supposed to decisively address an emerging threat profile for the foreseeable future.
01:46It was 1991.
01:48The Cold War had abruptly ended following the collapse of the Soviet Union,
01:52and the Navy reassessed its priorities.
01:55Rather than facing off against a peer superpower,
01:57it would now most likely be facing off against disperse,
02:00regional, and literal rather than blue water threats.
02:03So, the emphasis shifted from blue water anti-submarine warfare
02:08to power projection in coastal and nearshore environments.
02:11The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program would fill the role of a fleet defender
02:16optimized for open ocean survival against peer adversaries,
02:20that it did, and still does admirably.
02:22But to counter the new class of literal threats,
02:25the Navy needed a different kind of platform,
02:28one that could deliver high-volume precision fires against inland targets
02:31and asymmetric threats like fast-attack craft, mines,
02:35and short-range anti-ship missiles.
02:37The original concept was called the DD-21 Land Attack Destroyer,
02:42that evolved into the DDX program in the early 2000s.
02:46DDX then spawned the Zumwalt-class destroyer,
02:49a multi-mission platform emphasizing stealth, automation, and high-energy power systems.
02:54In February 2008, the initial $1.4 billion contract to begin construction of the lead ship,
03:01the USS Zumwalt, also known as DDG-1000, was approved.
03:05The original plan was for a total of 32 ships to be built.
03:09Two more were eventually built,
03:11the USS Michael Monsoor, or DDG-1001,
03:15and the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, or DDG-1002.
03:20But all three ultimately entered service,
03:22more than a decade after the Navy had officially pulled the plug of the remaining 29.
03:27Looking at the ship now, and reading up on its key features,
03:30it's hard to understand why.
03:32In many ways, it's as revolutionary as intended.
03:35One of the key requirements was a low radar cross-section, or RCS.
03:40If you're going to be swatting aside a myriad of asymmetric threats from the sea, air, and land,
03:45while hammering land targets,
03:46you need to be as invisible as possible for as long as possible.
03:50The Zumwalt-class achieves that,
03:52despite being larger than any destroyer or cruiser in the Navy's inventory.
03:56It has a length of 610 feet, a beam of 80.7 feet,
04:00a draft of 27.6 feet, and displaces around 15,656 tons.
04:07By comparison, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser has a length of 567 feet,
04:12a beam of 55 feet, a draft of 34 feet, and a displacement of around 9,600 tons.
04:19The current Ali-Burk-class destroyer model, the Flight 3,
04:22has a length of 509.5 feet, a beam of 66 feet,
04:27a draft of 31 feet, and a slightly larger displacement of 9,700 tons.
04:33As you can see, while having a substantially larger lengthen beam,
04:37during normal operations, the Zumwalt has a shallower draft
04:40than both the Ticonderoga and Ali-Burk.
04:43That's by design, and it suits its literal mission profile.
04:46But the Zumwalt also feature a unique ballast system
04:49that continuously adjusts the ship's draft as fuel is consumed,
04:53helping maintain the stability characteristics
04:56required by its distinctive tumblehome hull design.
04:59And that signature is further reduced to the size of a small fishing boat,
05:03thanks to the ship's unique hull.
05:05The Zumwalt-class features a wave-piercing tumblehome hull form,
05:09with sides that slope inward above the waterline.
05:12This configuration deflects incoming radar waves away from their source,
05:16greatly reducing the ship's RCS compared to conventional hulls
05:20with vertical or outward sloping sides.
05:22It looks futuristic, it deals with an ultra-modern threat,
05:26but it's actually not that a new concept.
05:29This design was fairly common in warships up until the early 20th century,
05:33and largely disappeared from major warship construction
05:36after the early 20th century.
05:38The inverted bow allows the ship to cut through waves rather than ride over them,
05:42but the design was abandoned due to its stability concerns.
05:46That's why the choice of a wave-piercing tumblehome hull for the Zumwalt-class
05:50caused much controversy among naval officers.
05:53They argued that if a wave hits the ship from the aft as it pitches down,
05:57it could lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water and roll over.
06:02But those fears were put to rest decisively during a 2019 deployment to Alaska.
06:07The commanding officer at the time, Captain Andrew Carlson,
06:11summoned his executive officer from his cabin to inform him of Sea State 6 conditions,
06:16i.e. waves of 13 to 20 feet.
06:18The executive officer was surprised.
06:20He had thought they were, at most, in Sea State 3,
06:23meaning waves of 1.6 to 4.1 feet tall.
06:26That's particularly impressive,
06:28given how powerfully the ship must have been slicing through those monster waves at the time.
06:32Now, it produces a total of 104,600 horsepower,
06:37which provides a top speed of 30 knots.
06:39That's an enormous amount of power for a surface combatant,
06:43and significantly more than most destroyers currently in service.
06:46And it's not just stability and speed that the hull design provides.
06:49It also maximizes stealth.
06:51That extends to the deckhouse,
06:53which encloses the sensors, radars, and command spaces.
06:56Composite materials consisting of carbon fiber reinforced vinyl ester panels and beams
07:02were used to reduce weight and radar signature.
07:05These roughly 900-tonne structures,
07:07measuring 155 feet long and over 50 feet high,
07:11are the largest all-composite maritime assemblies ever built.
07:15Both inside and outside the deckhouse is a suite of active and passive sensors
07:19designed for multi-mission operations,
07:21including air, surface, and undersea threat detection.
07:24This sensor stack feeds into the Total Ship Computing Environment,
07:28a distributed open architecture combat management system developed by Raytheon.
07:33It integrates radar, sonar, electronic warfare, and weapon systems
07:38for real-time decision-making and automated responses.
07:41So the Zumwalt are as advanced as they look.
07:44The problem is,
07:45cramming all that tech and innovation into one ship comes at a cost,
07:49an ever-increasing cost,
07:50a much higher cost than originally intended.
07:53That's one of the main reasons the Navy decided to pull the plug.
07:56The original target unit procurement cost for the 32 ships
08:00was approximately $1.4 billion each.
08:03But costs grew rapidly,
08:05triggering a non-McCurdy amendment breach in June 2010,
08:08when the unit cost exceeded the original baseline by more than 15%.
08:12Despite cutting some features and reducing the procurement numbers,
08:16the costs kept rising.
08:17For example, General Dynamics,
08:20the company that built the Zumwalt-class,
08:22had to spend $40 million on a special facility to build them.
08:26The final tally reached $22.5 billion for the three vessels by April 2016.
08:32That's an average of $7.5 billion per ship,
08:35if you include the research and development expenditures,
08:38originally intended to be a mortar size over 32 ships instead of three.
08:42By comparison,
08:44the Ali-Burk Flight 3 costs around $2.2 to $2.5 billion per ship,
08:49less than a third of the cost of the Zumwalt.
08:51A Block 5 or 6 Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine
08:55costs $4.3 to $4.8 billion per ship.
08:59That's in the same ballpark as what the U.S.'s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers cost,
09:03but around a third less than a Zumwalt-class.
09:05So, would you rather have a nuclear sub with a state-of-the-art Ali-Burk thrown in for good
09:10measure,
09:11or an experimental Zumwalt?
09:13If you said the nuclear sub, you're in line with the Navy and Congress,
09:16especially since the Zumwalt's main gun became, in effect, unusable.
09:20The Zumwalt-classes Advanced Gun System, or AGS,
09:24consisted of two 155mm 62-caliber naval guns.
09:29The problem is that it was designed exclusively for the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile, or LRLAP,
09:36a precision-guided munition intended for extended-range shore bombardment at a range of 83 nautical miles.
09:43The ship could carry 335 rounds per gun, or 670 rounds,
09:48but with an additional storage compartment for 320 rounds, it could carry a total of 990 rounds.
09:54Sounds great, but not at $800,000 to $1 million a round,
09:58which is how high the unit cost soared.
10:00Development of the shells was ultimately cancelled because the cost had ballooned so much.
10:05To make matters worse, the gun's specialized slow-twist rifling and autoloader
10:10are incompatible with standard 155mm ammunition.
10:14So, with no alternative ammunition type available,
10:17the destroyers were effectively sailing without their main offensive weapon.
10:21That doesn't mean it was completely unarmed.
10:23The Zumwalt also carried the MK-57 Peripheral Vertical Launching System, or PVLS.
10:29The system consists of pods of VLS cells, 80 in total, distributed around the ship's outer shell,
10:35with a thin steel outer shell and a thick inner shell.
10:38This design directs any explosion's force outward rather than into the ship,
10:43and reduces any resultant loss of missile capacity to only the affected pod.
10:47It's designed to host Tomahawk land-attack missiles and standard missiles SM-2MR for local air defense,
10:54evolved Sea Sparrow missiles for engaging both airborne and seaborne threats,
10:59and vertical-launch anti-submarine rockets for engaging submarine threats.
11:03Two MK-46 30mm gun systems provide close-range defense against small surface threats.
11:10But on a warship, what good is a potent defense if the offense is non-existent?
11:14Now, if daily news updates and deep-dive analyses on the most important military and geopolitical developments are what you
11:21seek,
11:22make sure you subscribe to the channel.
11:24At The Military Show, you'll find some of the most detailed, accurate, and insightful military content on YouTube.
11:30Now, the Navy has found an ingenious solution to the offense problem.
11:35Gone are the inoperable AGS installations.
11:37In their place come four large advanced payload module tubes,
11:41with each 87-inch tube capable of housing three missiles.
11:45And not just any old missile.
11:47The Zumwalt-class ships are being refitted to employ the conventional Prompt Strike, or CPS system,
11:53a hypersonic boost glide weapon capable of traveling over 1,700 miles.
11:58It's a new class of non-nuclear, ultra-fast strike capability
12:01that can penetrate modern defenses and respond to emerging threats almost instantly.
12:07CPS is part of a family of new hypersonic missiles Lockheed Martin is developing.
12:12CPS for the Navy, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, for the Army,
12:18and the Air Launch Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, an air-to-ground missile for the Air Force.
12:24The Navy's CPS and the Army's LRHW share the same common hypersonic glide body,
12:30which helps reduce costs, speed development, and simplify future upgrades.
12:34The CPS's mechanism combines a rocket boost phase,
12:38followed by the use of aerodynamic forces in a glide phase.
12:41This design allows for quicker, longer range,
12:44and maneuverable strikes with enhanced survivability against enemy defenses.
12:48In May 2025, the Navy reported that it conducted a successful end-to-end,
12:53ground-based flight test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,
12:57using a cold gas launch approach.
12:59In other words, the rocket motor ignites after the missile has left the silo.
13:03That's an important milestone.
13:05As Vice Admiral Johnny R. Wolfe Jr. explains,
13:09the cold gas approach allows the Navy to eject the missile from the platform
13:13and achieve a safe distance above the ship before first-stage ignition.
13:16The Zumwalt-class will now carry 12 of them, and that changes the game.
13:21It transforms the Zumwalt-class from an ineffective coastal support ship
13:25into a premier, stealthy, long-range strike platform,
13:29particularly critical for potential Pacific theater conflicts.
13:32Hyper-sonic weapons like these can maneuver in flight at speeds faster than a mile a second.
13:37That makes them much harder to detect and intercept than traditional ballistic or cruise missiles.
13:42They also mean that commanders can now strike up to 1,700 miles away,
13:47well beyond the range of enemy air defenses.
13:49Why is that such a big deal?
13:51Well, according to Jerry Hendricks, a retired Navy captain and former Pentagon staff member,
13:57who's now a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute,
14:00these ships will be able to do that pinpoint accuracy from way outside the shooting range for the rest of
14:05the fleet.
14:06Even better, because of their low RCS,
14:09they'll be able to operate much more comfortably in regions
14:11where adversaries are practicing area-denial strategies that might keep other platforms at bay.
14:17In a nutshell, the enemy's response time will be significantly reduced.
14:21A Tomahawk missile takes about an hour to hit a target 500 miles away.
14:25The CPS will hit the same target in 10 minutes.
14:28It can travel from Guam to the Taiwan Strait in just 30 minutes.
14:32But just how much of a bite it has when it arrives isn't yet clear.
14:36It's known that the system uses a warhead similar to that of the Dark Eagle Ground Base Hypersonic Missile System,
14:42the common hypersonic glide body, or CHGB.
14:47It's been reported that the Dark Eagle Warhead weighs less than 13.6 kilograms.
14:52Many Ukrainian $500 FPV drones pack more.
14:55But the main destructive force here is provided by the kinetic impact of the hypersonic vehicle.
15:01According to the military, the missile is designed to destroy an area the size of a parking lot.
15:06So, presumably, the weight of the warhead indicates that it's essentially an explosive charge
15:11designed to disperse the striking elements so that they hit targets across a given area.
15:17The Zumwalt can also be used as forward bases for hypersonic missiles at hubs like Hawaii,
15:22possibly alongside similarly capable submarines.
15:25Next in line to carry CPS rounds are the Block V Virginia-class submarines,
15:29where missile storage will be enabled by the addition of four extra missile silos in the Virginia payload module.
15:36To go with this new mission profile, there's another important upgrade in the works,
15:41a fuel endurance and range modification.
15:44With the rise of China and an increasingly capable People's Liberation Army,
15:49the three Zumwalt-class destroyers have wisely been repurposed to sling hypersonics at strategic targets,
15:55extending the Zumwalt's operational range and ability to loiter in theater only enhances this mission set.
16:02These modifications convert the ship's existing saltwater ballast tanks to accommodate an enlarged fuel oil capacity.
16:10Further modifications are also set to increase the amount of fuel that the Zumwalt-class could take on during replenishment
16:16to account for the increased storage.
16:18This means the Navy's first hypersonic strike platforms will be able to loiter at sea for longer periods,
16:23and that's a capability that will be crucial for deterrence missions against adversaries in the Indo-Pacific.
16:29So, it's easy to see why the Navy has decided to try to revive the Zumwalt with hypersonics,
16:35and to see exactly where the ship's new role fits neatly into the U.S. shifting strategy,
16:40particularly in the Indo-Pacific.
16:42But are 12 hypersonic missiles really enough to warrant the excitement?
16:45Or is this all going to end up being even more billions sucked into a sunk cost fallacy?
16:50Well, we'll have to wait and see.
16:52Fortunately, we won't have long to wait for an initial assessment.
16:56The USS Zumwalt will reportedly be recommissioned later in 2026.
17:00After three years in dry dock, it was seen earlier in the year departing for sea trials.
17:05The other Zumwalt-class destroyers will also be upgraded to the same standard in due course.
17:10Work on the third Zumwalt-class ship undergoing modernization,
17:14the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, has already begun.
17:17The dismantling of the forward artillery mount and other work to remove excess equipment
17:22has already been completed.
17:23And the ship is scheduled to return to service by the time the second ship in the class,
17:28the USS Michael Monsor, enters dry dock in 2027 for scheduled maintenance.
17:34So, we'll soon get to see what kind of difference the hypersonics make on the waves,
17:38and not just in theory.
17:39We'll also get a chance to see whether the other major flaw in the Zumwalt-class to date
17:44has been resolved in dry dock.
17:46Persistent reliability issues.
17:49To an extent, that's to be expected given the comprehensive integration of unproven technologies.
17:54The integrated electric propulsion system and extensive automation, for example,
17:59have led to frequent equipment failures.
18:01During its initial sea trials in December 2017,
18:04the USS Monsor experienced propulsion issues from seawater intrusion into electrical components,
18:11shortening the trials and ultimately delaying its delivery.
18:14In another prominent example,
18:16a propulsion casualty occurred during transit through the Panama Canal in 2016.
18:22This event highlighted vulnerabilities in the electrical distribution
18:25and stealth-related composite materials,
18:28which contributed to high maintenance demands and reduced operational availability.
18:32These teething problems were amplified by reliance on novel systems
18:36without sufficient at-sea validation.
18:39No doubt, there will be further teething problems with the installation of the CPS system,
18:44which is still in development.
18:45And all of this is sure to add further billions to the already insane bill.
18:50The CPS isn't going to be cheap.
18:52That's why, while many have welcomed Zumwalt's new role,
18:56many others question whether this attempt to repurpose the Zumwalt
18:59is worth the cost and resources.
19:01Even if all goes smoothly,
19:02and the new Zumwalt becomes the deadliest ship in the US Navy,
19:06there are only three,
19:07and that's all that they're ever going to be.
19:09How significant or meaningful an impact can three ships have on the overall force,
19:14especially when compared to the Navy's larger Arleigh Burke-class destroyers
19:18and planned future warships?
19:20By some estimates,
19:22if the hypersonic upgrade costs remain within projections,
19:25a really big if given the Zumwalt's history,
19:27the CPS integration could add approximately $452 million to each Zumwalt-class ship.
19:34Call it $1.5 billion across the three.
19:37Perhaps that money could be better applied elsewhere.
19:40A growing number of experts already feel that the era of huge multi-billion-dollar vessels
19:44like carriers and destroyers has come to an end,
19:47and the new era will be dominated by unmanned naval vessels.
19:51Ukraine essentially chased Russia's Black Sea fleet out of the Western Black Sea
19:55using aerial and naval drones.
19:58The US, meanwhile,
19:59has had to contend directly with Iranian and Houthi drones and anti-ship missiles
20:03while continuing operations across the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Arden, and Red Sea.
20:08For that $1.5 billion,
20:10the Navy could buy around five missile-armed large unmanned surface vessels, or LUSVs,
20:16or it could buy something like 25 medium multi-role surface drones,
20:20or about 12 long-range autonomous submarines.
20:23The hybrid fleet approach would offer greater mass, distributed sensing,
20:27and reduce risk to human life compared to a single high-value manned platform.
20:31But it wouldn't pack the fearsome ultra-long-range power of a hypersonic-enabled Zumwalt.
20:36That is, if this time around it finally ends up working as the Navy expects.
20:42We'll of course follow developments closely,
20:44so subscribe to the channel to stay in the loop.
20:47In the meantime, check out this video,
20:49and decide for yourself whether the aircraft carrier is already obsolete or not.
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