The ship is currently stationed at a Mississippi shipyard, where workers have installed missile tubes to replace the twin turrets of a gun system that was never activated due to its exorbitant cost. Once the system is operational, the Zumwalt will serve as a platform for executing rapid, precision strikes from greater distances, thereby enhancing the warship's utility.
According to The Independent, Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, commented on the Navy's innovative approach, saying, “It was a costly blunder but the Navy could take victory from the jaws of defeat here, and get some utility out of them by making them into a hypersonic platform.” The US has been developing various types of hypersonic weapons for the past two decades. However, recent tests by Russia and China have increased the pressure on the US military to expedite their production.
WATCH: WE WANT A LOT FROM JD VANCE, BUT THERE'S ONE THING HE IS ASKING IN RETURN!
Hypersonic weapons are capable of traveling beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, and their added maneuverability makes them more challenging to intercept. Last year, The Washington Post reported that a defense department briefing confirming China's recent test of an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon, the DF-27, was among the documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira. Although the Pentagon had previously acknowledged the weapon's development, it had not confirmed its testing.
EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHETHER OR NOT TRUMP CAN OVERRIDE BIDEN'S PARDONS!
One of the US programs in development and planned for the Zumwalt is the “Conventional Prompt Strike." This system would launch like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glide vehicle that would travel at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound before hitting the target. The weapon system is being developed jointly by the Navy and Army. Each of the Zumwalt-class destroyers would be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles, totaling 12 hypersonic weapons per ship.
WATCH: MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE GOES OFF THE DEEP-END ON REPORTER—IN TRUE MTG STYLE!
December 01, 2024
By choosing the Zumwalt, the Navy aims to enhance the utility of a $7.5 billion warship that critics consider an expensive mistake, despite its role as a test platform for multiple innovations. The Zumwalt was initially envisioned to provide land-attack capability with an Advanced Gun System with rocket-assisted projectiles to pave the way for Marines to charge ashore. However, the system featuring 155 mm guns hidden in stealthy turrets was canceled because each of the rocket-assisted projectiles cost between $800,000 and $1 million.
BREAKING IN AT MAR-A-LAGO? THIS GUY TRIED IT—AND IT DIDN’T END WELL!
Despite the tarnished reputation, the three Zumwalt-class destroyers remain the Navy’s most advanced surface warship in terms of new technologies. These innovations include electric propulsion, an angular shape to minimize radar signature, an unconventional wave-piercing hull, automated fire and damage control, and a composite deckhouse that conceals radar and other sensors.
REPORTERS CLAIM EDITORS FROM THIS NEWS OUTLET PUT THE BRAKES ON HUNTER BIDEN COVERAGE!
The Zumwalt arrived at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in August 2023 and was removed from the water for the complex task of integrating the new weapon system. It is expected to be undocked this week in preparation for the next round of tests and its return to the fleet, according to shipyard spokeswoman Kimberly Aguillard.
A US hypersonic weapon was successfully tested over the summer, and the development of the missiles is ongoing. The Navy plans to begin testing the system aboard the Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028. However, the US weapon system comes with a hefty price tag. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would cost nearly $18 billion to purchase 300 of the weapons and maintain them over 20 years.
DEMS ARE IN COMPLETE PANIC MODE—ESPECIALLY IN NEW JERSEY, HERE'S WHY...
Critics argue that the cost outweighs the benefits. Loren Thompson, a longtime military analyst in Washington DC, questioned the value of the missile, saying, “This particular missile costs more than a dozen tanks. All it gets you is a precise non-nuclear explosion, someplace far far away. Is it really worth the money? The answer is most of the time the missile costs much more than any target you can destroy with it.”
WATCH: ICE’S “SHOCK AND AWE” RAIDS LEAVE SANCTUARY CITIES SCRAMBLING!
However, these weapons provide Navy vessels with the capability to strike an enemy from a distance of thousands of kilometers — outside the range of most enemy weapons — and there is no effective defense against them, according to retired Navy Rear Admiral Ray Spicer, CEO of the US Naval Institute, a think tank, and former commander of an aircraft carrier strike force. Spicer argued that conventional missiles that cost less aren’t much of a bargain if they are unable to reach their targets, adding that the US military really has no choice but to pursue them.
TRUMP GETS BLATANTLY HONEST WITH PUTIN AND ZELENSKY IN FIRST INTERVIEW AS #47!
“The adversary has them. We never want to be outdone,” he said. The US is accelerating development because hypersonics have been identified as vital to US national security with “survivable and lethal capabilities,” according to James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies. “Fielding new capabilities that are based on hypersonic technologies is a priority for the defense department to sustain and strengthen our integrated deterrence, and to build enduring advantages,” he said.
