The most expensive fighter in the world today is undoubtedly the U.S. military's Zumwall superfighter, which costs $3.8 billion. At first it was almost worth the entire fleet of another country. From the day the warship entered service, questions about its low-cost performance never ceased. A very counterintuitive example is that the Super class in Zumwall has never been tested with a missile weapon since its deployment, nor has it been tested. When using advanced artillery systems, it is almost an expensive toy ship. As if to refute this, the US military has just conducted its first missile test using the destroyer USS Zumwall.
According to the US website The Drive reported on October 19, the lead ship of the US Zumwall-class destroyer, the USS Zumwall, conducted the first direct test of an air defense missile. At the sea test site near Cape Gum off the coast of Southern California, Soviet warships successfully destroyed simulated anti-ship cruise missile targets using the Mk 57 vertical launch system, firing an SM-2Block IIA medium-range anti-aircraft missile. The destroyer's commander, Navy Capt. Gary Cave, noted that the successful launch was an important milestone in the ship's maturation and represented the pinnacle of work and cooperation among the members of the Zumwall-class destroyers.
Although the success of this launch has been highly regarded by the US military, it still exposes a fatal problem, that is, it was launched in 2013. Since its official launch in 2016, this 15,000-ton highly stealthy sci-fi fighter has only reached a limited level. Combat effectiveness, this is indeed a big pit that the US military has fallen into in the field of high technology. Originally, modern destroyers came standard with powerful air defense, anti-submarine and basic anti-ship capabilities.
The U.S. Navy, in particular, has long been known for its powerful anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. The powerful regional air defense capability of the Aegis fighter is a guarantee for the survival of American aircraft carriers. As the last and best warship, the surprise of the Zumwall-class destroyer is that it theoretically does not have air defense. Its design has been completely bogged down, focusing so much on ground attack that it has lost the original special skills of American fighters.
The emergence of the Zumwall special class comes against the backdrop of the shift of the U.S. military from sea to land. The idea is to bombard inland targets with improved stealth performance and advanced long-range artillery systems. For its part, its regional air defense is poor. Dual-frequency radars, the Volume Search Radar (VSR), and Multi Fuction Radar (MFR) frequencies equipped with AN/SPY-3X were originally planned. ) combination.
As a result, the US military completely canceled the VSR in order to solve the cost problem. Although MFR can still be theoretically relied on for combat, the effect is probably not much better than coordinated combat. In terms of weapons, in addition to advanced artillery systems that cannot be used, it mainly relies on 80 advanced vertical launch systems located on the periphery of the ship. Although the resistance to strikes is not bad, the firepower is not comparable to the standard Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, not to mention the 122-unit Ticonderoga-class cruisers. But in any case, the expensive Zumwalt system cannot be abandoned, and the US military needs to improve it.
At the moment, the most important development is to improve its air defense and anti-ship capabilities. The "SM-2Block IIIAZ" anti-aircraft missile it tested this time is the SM-2Block III, designed specifically for the Zumwalt class, which gives it better medium-range air defense capabilities. The long-term plan is to use the Coordinated Engagement Capability (CEC) and Naval Integrated Fire Control-Air Defense (NIFC-CA) systems to enable the Zumwall class to carry the Standard SM-6 for over-the-horizon air defense, further improving air defense capabilities. Anti-ship uses Tomahawk anti-ship cruise missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles have been strengthened, hypersonic weapons may be installed in the future, and new long-range shells have not been completely abandoned.
At the moment, these projects may fail due to tightening US military funding, or be postponed due to technical difficulties. It is difficult to say when the new shells will arrive. Although the U.S. military has taken steps to strengthen special forces in Zumwall, it still faces many challenges.