The Navy told Congress in a recent hearing that the Advanced Gun System on the Zumwalt-class destroyer is a dead letter for the foreseeable future, despite the long-range gun designed for shore bombardment being one of the cornerstones of the troubled stealth destroyer.
Even as the second-in-class USS Michael Monsoor departs from Guantanamo Bay for San Diego to receive commissioning and combat testing, the Navy is only starting to figure out what they will do with the troubled multi-billion dollar Zumwalt-class destroyer.
Zumwalt is going to sea without its design capabilities. I don't care. The design capabilities were dumb and not relevant to today's problems.
Part of the cost issue is that instead of building more than thirty we have three. So design costs are concentrated on three hulls. And as I've said, I think the mission of stealthy shore support with gunfire was ill advised. So pouring money into the three ships put in the water to make the new gun system work is a waste.
But don't worry, eventually the costs that accounting rules put on Zumwalt will be used on other ships.
