Check Out These Detailed Images Taken Aboard the Navy’s New Stealth Destroyer

The most advanced surface combatant ever built makes its first port of call.

By Tyler Rogoway

Updated on May 25, 2019

www.twz.com

The USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is on its delivery voyage from General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, to Baltimore, where it will be commissioned into the Navy’s inventory on October 15th. After that, the Zumwalt will make the long voyage to its new homeport in San Diego.

Along the way, Zumwalt made a port call—her first ever—in Newport, Rhode Island, where some lucky folks got a tour. Photos of Zumwalt’s interior have been in limited supply, but now with the ship about to make major news, the Navy seems willing to loosen these restrictions.

Check out these photos via the AP below:

Shot taken from the bow of the Zumwalt showing the low-observable (stealthy) housing of one of the ship’s 155mm AGS, as well as the some of the 80 individual vertical launch cells that line the ship’s gunnels. , AP

A rare shot of the bridge of the Zumwalt including the array of big-screen monitors that repeat seamless video imagery from cameras distributed around the perimeter of the ship. , AP

The passageways inside the Zumwalt are suprisingly spacious., AP

A shot from inside Zumwalt’s 7,500 square foot hangar bay., AP

Zumwalt’s stealthy composite deckhouse with various apertures for sensors and mechanical systems. The bridge is located behind the windows running across the structure. , AP

Another one of Zumwalt’s inner passages. , AP

It may be harder to detect and attack on the high-seas, but in port Zumwalt requires the same old-school force protection as its less stealthy counterparts., AP

The Zumwalt sits at rest in Newport, RI, during its first port of call. This shot gives a good view of all the sensors and openings laid into its composite deckhouse., AP

What was not pictured was Zumwalt’s cutting-edge Mission Center, which supposedly looks like something on a sci-fi starship. Also not shown are the Zumwalt’s twin 155-mm Advanced Gun Systems that are housed on the bow of the ship’s tumblehome hull.

For a destroyer, the Zumwalt is very large. 610 feet long, 80.7 feet wide and displaces a whopping 15,000 tons. As a comparison, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, the mainstay surface combatant of the US Navy, is roughly 100 feet shorter, 15 feet narrower and has a smaller displacement by about 6,000 tons.

This is one big-ass destroyer.

A great shot of Zumwalt showing the ship’s stealthy openings along her hull that allow her to operate safely as any ship while in dense waterways and while docking. When on combat patrols the ship would “clean-up” to present a minimal radar return. r , AP

Once Zumwalt settles in at Naval Station San Diego, Captain James Kirk (no kidding) and his crew of about 150, roughly half that of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, will run the highly automated ship and its brand new combat system through its paces during a long regime of exercises. If this post-delivery maintenance availability period goes as planned it will culminate with the Zumwalt being certified as operational in 2018.

Contact the author Tyler@thedrive.com

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