Source: World Wide Web
The most advanced warships of the US Navy have recently exposed negative news, and the stealth destroyer "Zumwalt", which has just been in service for 5 years, has been photographed rusting in recent days. In response to this embarrassing image, the U.S. Navy responded that it was because "harsh environments reduced the performance of ships, and the crew was already struggling to deal with this problem.
The "Theater" column of the US "Power" website reported on December 10 that the first ship of the US Navy's three Zumwalt class, the "Zumwalt", recently conducted testing and training work off the coast of Southern California. The destroyer entered service 5 years ago and has been in and out of San Diego Harbor for years. It is hoped that this "futuristic" destroyer will be officially deployed in the near future, but it does not look as dazzling as it once was, some of its radar absorbing material has begun to fade, and the hull is rusty.
After a photography enthusiast posted the latest footage of the "Zumwalt" destroyer, it caused a heated discussion on social media. Some netizens said that the United States should spend more effort on painting, because when a US warship appears in a place, it should look in good condition, which is the purpose of its existence; some netizens joke that this is a special improvement made by the crew to this destroyer; more netizens complained: "Why does this ship look like a giant who eats a lot of puffed food to wipe his ass with it..."
Foreign netizens commented on the rusty situation of the US destroyer
The report explained that this was a problem that occurred after a long, high-intensity operation by the ship. There is also controversy over the "rusting" of ships, with some arguing that as long as the ship is still usable, it is not a big problem; others see it as a "serious embarrassment" that suggests a troubling systemic problem within the U.S. Navy.
The report believes that the situation that led to the "Zumwalt" destroyer may be related to the ship's "minimum staffing" design. Although the displacement of the Zumwalt-class destroyers is much larger than that of the U.S. Army's active Arleigh-class destroyers, the Zumwalt-class destroyers have only a little more crew than half that of the Arleigh-Class destroyers, or about 175 people. While the ship's high degree of automation could help reduce the number of people in some positions, corrosion control is still a laborious task that requires a lot of sweat and physical strength. Moreover, the surface of the Zumwalt-class destroyers requires more maintenance, and the crew needs to deal with rust on the invisible coating material that is usually difficult to observe, which is difficult to maintain.
As for when the Zumwalt destroyer will be fully operational, it is unclear.
The "Theater" then asked the U.S. Navy about the rusty appearance of the Zumwalt, and the U.S. Navy responded that for surface combat forces, the fight against corrosion was a protracted battle, the harsh environment in which we were located reduced the performance of our ships, our sailors were working hard to solve the corrosion problem, and we were also conducting maintenance training for the crew to maintain the Navy's combat readiness.
It is reported that the U.S. Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers have a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, which is an uncompromising "10,000-ton drive", and was named "the world's strongest battleship" at the beginning of development, but in the construction process, it faced problems such as cost overruns, delays in progress, and budget cuts. As the project progressed, the expected goals became increasingly difficult to achieve, and the high cost of the combat platform eventually forced the U.S. Navy to cut back on purchases.
After the service of the first destroyer " Zumwalt " , it fell into the embarrassing situation of no bullets available. In 2016, the U.S. Navy canceled the Zumwalt-class destroyer's long-range ground-attack artillery project with advanced naval gun systems because a single shell cost more than $800,000.
Subsequently, the U.S. military decided to install a "universal hypersonic glide bomb" weapon on this "10,000-ton drive", but in order to load this huge missile, the two AGS advanced artillery systems on the foredeck needed to be dismantled. The U.S. Navy hopes that by 2025, at least one of the three Zumwalt-class destroyers will be equipped with a "universal hypersonic glider."