Destroyer Zumwalt

I think I read somewhere a while back that it's stealth tech gives it radar signature around the size of a fishing trawler. Not sure how accurate that is though. Let's just hope it's fairing better in testing and costing us less than the F35...

Here's a little Wiki info on it. Looks like only 3 are planned if its accurate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt-class_destroyer

My thought would be that it could take a hit, depending on what hits it, and not sink. It certainly would not have the 14-16 inch steel protection like the WW2 ships did. I would expect that it couldn't take a hit and survive that 14-16 inches of steel could handle.

It does have some defensive weaponry, though the names of those weapons systems are complicated and it would be easy to overlook that. The 40mm and 20mm weaponry would be defensive. I didn't read everything, though would guess they have torpedo's as well.

I have no doubt that it looks like a trawler on radar. US stealth technology is really good.

The F35 is an interesting case. I was opposed to it based on cost until I learned some things. A few F35s, flying off an aircraft carrier, could completely disable the Chinese or Russian Air Forces. China and Russia can't see them. The first thing they would do would be to shoot down all of the enemy re-fueling aircraft, which would deal a massive blow. They would also be able to bomb anything desired without being shot down.

Aircraft have to have support. By disabling all support, they effectively disable the Air Force.

I'm no naval person, but it seems to me that one either dodges blows or sits there and takes a pounding and hopefully the ship is up to that. Kinda like the idea of the NJ and Missouri. Clearly the Zumwalt is designed to not take a hit. Makes for a much smaller and lighter ship. I hope we never need to find out if the design works as intended, but what are the chances of that? I'm sure soldiers and sailors for the past few hundred years all had the same thought in their minds.

Marko, I knew that it reminded me of something that I couldn't put my finger on!

If you want some fun reading give Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters (I and II) a read. Cussler loves to look for historic sunken ships including several Civil War era ships. Very interesting. Cussler's fiction is fun to read as well although these days somebody else writes them for him. I won't read those but the stuff he wrote himself is a blast, Inca Gold was my first taste of Dirk Pitt and Al Giardino what a lot of fun.

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters/

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters-ii/

I'm no naval person, but it seems to me that one either dodges blows or sits there and takes a pounding and hopefully the ship is up to that. Kinda like the idea of the NJ and Missouri. Clearly the Zumwalt is designed to not take a hit. Makes for a much smaller and lighter ship. I hope we never need to find out if the design works as intended, but what are the chances of that? I'm sure soldiers and sailors for the past few hundred years all had the same thought in their minds.

Marko, I knew that it reminded me of something that I couldn't put my finger on!

If you want some fun reading give Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters (I and II) a read.  Cussler loves to look for historic sunken ships including several Civil War era ships.  Very interesting.  Cussler's fiction is fun to read as well although these days somebody else writes them for him.  I won't read those but the stuff he wrote himself is a blast, Inca Gold was my first taste of Dirk Pitt and Al Giardino  what a lot of fun.

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters/

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters-ii/

+1 One of my favorite authors. Have most of his books including the 2 mentioned above. I leaned more to the Dirk Pitt series but the newer novels are pretty good as well.

I'm no naval person, but it seems to me that one either dodges blows or sits there and takes a pounding and hopefully the ship is up to that. Kinda like the idea of the NJ and Missouri. Clearly the Zumwalt is designed to not take a hit. Makes for a much smaller and lighter ship. I hope we never need to find out if the design works as intended, but what are the chances of that? I'm sure soldiers and sailors for the past few hundred years all had the same thought in their minds.

Marko, I knew that it reminded me of something that I couldn't put my finger on!

If you want some fun reading give Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters (I and II) a read.  Cussler loves to look for historic sunken ships including several Civil War era ships.  Very interesting.  Cussler's fiction is fun to read as well although these days somebody else writes them for him.  I won't read those but the stuff he wrote himself is a blast, Inca Gold was my first taste of Dirk Pitt and Al Giardino  what a lot of fun.

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters/

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters-ii/

+1 One of my favorite authors. Have most of his books including the 2 mentioned above. I leaned more to the Dirk Pitt series but the newer novels are pretty good as well.

Maybe I'll have to lighten up and give the co-written works a chance.

If you want some fun reading give Clive Cussler's The Sea Hunters (I and II) a read.  Cussler loves to look for historic sunken ships including several Civil War era ships.  Very interesting.  Cussler's fiction is fun to read as well although these days somebody else writes them for him.  I won't read those but the stuff he wrote himself is a blast, Inca Gold was my first taste of Dirk Pitt and Al Giardino  what a lot of fun.

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters/

http://clive-cussler-books.com/the-sea-hunters-ii/

+1 One of my favorite authors. Have most of his books including the 2 mentioned above. I leaned more to the Dirk Pitt series but the newer novels are pretty good as well.

Maybe I'll have to lighten up and give the co-written works a chance.  

Some are good but I still find his earlier work to be better. The co-written books just seem to be getting kind of cookie cutter. They just lack something IMO. The Dirk Pitt novels just seemed more thought out, had more depth, and I enjoyed seeing how the characters grew and evolved overtime. I don't purchase them like I once would for that reason and choose now to just check them out of the local library.

For anyone curious, if you've ever seen and enjoyed the movie "Sahara" with Mathew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, & Penelope Cruz, that is based off a Clive Cussler novel of the same name. The novel is better.

+1 One of my favorite authors. Have most of his books including the 2 mentioned above. I leaned more to the Dirk Pitt series but the newer novels are pretty good as well.

Maybe I'll have to lighten up and give the co-written works a chance.  

Some are good but I still find his earlier work to be better. The co-written books just seem to be getting kind of cookie cutter. They just lack something IMO. The Dirk Pitt novels just seemed more thought out, had more depth, and I enjoyed seeing how the characters grew and evolved overtime. I don't purchase them like I once would for that reason and choose now to  just check them out of the local library.

For anyone curious, if you've ever seen and enjoyed the movie "Sahara" with Mathew McConaughey, Steve Zahn,  & Penelope Cruz, that is based off a Clive Cussler novel of the same name. The novel is better.  

The books are always better but imagine being the guy with the challenge of casting Dirk Pitt and Al Giardino? I like all of the actors that appeared in Sahara but I just couldn't see them as Dirk and Al.

Going off on a tangent here, other series of novels I've enjoyed have been the Jake Graffton series by Stephen Coonts and the Bob Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter. Oh, can't forget the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connely. Dang, then there's the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy by Richard Morgan and the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. There is something compelling about having a familiar character evolving through a series - like an old friend or adversary as the case may be. It probably puts more pressure on an author to be consistent and well, you always know Dirk and Al survive and emerge victorious.

Here's a link to the ship that started this thread going through it's 'shock trials'

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/...-vstan.cnn

I'm curious what it looks and sound like from below. There's subs in them waters that are hunting too.

Marko , That's a really good question. I didn't find and answer, though found this article, which is really interesting:

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/us-n...ship-14593

This article confirms what a lot of you have said, from not being able to take a hit to having weak defensive capabilities. Those of you that like topics like the Zumwalt would probably like the website, nationalinterest.org. That's where I learned about the ability of a few F35s to be so powerful.

olschoolsteel, Based on your background, you may find this thread interesting, don't think I've seen you on it.