Summary and Key Points: The Zumwalt-class destroyers, initially designed to provide artillery support with advanced 155-mm guns, have been a costly disappointment for the U.S. Navy. With only three of the planned 32 ships built, the Zumwalt-class has faced numerous issues, including exorbitant costs and the removal of its main artillery due to functionality problems.

-The Navy now plans to repurpose these ships as hypersonic missile carriers, despite doubts about their reliability and effectiveness.

-Critics argue that these destroyers are more liability than asset and suggest focusing on more practical solutions like launching hypersonic weapons from submarines or unmanned underwater vehicles.

The US Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer is, along with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), probably the Navy’s worst investment ever.

Costing Navy around $22 billion in research and development, it had stealth features, and was designed to provide artillery support with a 155-mm Advanced Gun System (AGS).

This warship was the reason behind the Chief of Naval Operation in 2006 authorizing the termination of the ammunition supply chains for America’s semi-retired Iowa-class battleships. An addendum inserted by Congress to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 instructed the Navy to maintain America’s legendary battleships until the Navy could prove they had a viable, modern replacement for it.

The Navy assumed the Zumwalt was the answer they’d been looking for.

America’s Navy was wrong. The Zumwalt-class ended up being a giant boondoggle that almost everyone hates. The inability of the Zumwalts to perform their intended........

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