USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is a controversial ship, to say the least. After much fanfare among the mainstream press, the truth about the ship's watered-down design, tiny fleet size, useless deck guns, and the implications of these factors, among others, became much more clear. As we reported two years ago, in yet another cost-cutting move, the Navy decided to forego the ship's very stealth concept—which is the major reason the ships look the way they do, cost as much as they do, and have certain design tradeoffs for doing so—and bolt on communications systems and some sensors in a very unstealthy manner. These corner-cutting measures even included the addition of a rickety looking mast above the ship's deckhouse.
So what? The idea that the stealthy ship could bombard China was utterly stupid as a design concept when you consider that explosions on Chinese soil are not stealthy. How long would it take China to figure out a ship was doing that and blanket the area with eyeballs (stealth is not the same as invisible)?
And given that the ship would have to sail with other non-stealthy ships for mutual protection, it's not like it can hide using its stealth capabilities. The ships, practically speaking, are test beds for future surface warfare capabilities with only a secondary combat mission.
Have no worries, expensive Zumwalt technology will live on in new ships.
UPDATE: Strategypage writes about how the Zumwalt class is being given an anti-ship mission.
