Originally published on 10 December, 2015
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The U.S. Navy’s largest and most expensive ever destroyer took to the Atlantic Ocean on Monday for its first test in open seas.
The 600-foot-long, 15,000-ton USS Zumwalt took four years to build at a cost of $4.3 billion, the Portland Press Herald reports.
The stealth warship’s wave-piercing “tumblehome” hull, oblique deckhouse and smooth or enclosed surfaces are designed to make it appear on radar as a small boat, such as a fishing vessel.
The Zumwalt is about 100 feet longer and 20 feet wider than the U.S. Navy's current class of destroyers and has more advanced weapons, including a computer-guided missile system that can hit targets up to 63 miles away.
Further tests are scheduled on even more sophisticated weaponry, including an electromagnetic rail gun that can launch projectiles at seven times the speed of sound at targets more than 100 miles away, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The ship was designed to operate closer to land in support of ground attacks and also in the open seas in battles against other ships, aircraft or submarines.
The Zumwalt, which can hit a top speed in excess of 30 knots (35 miles per hour), is powered by a 78-megawatt power plant and is the U.S. Navy’s first “all electric” warship. Its gas-turbine engines power generators, rather than propellers.
Naval architects have raised questions about the stability of the tumblehome design in bad weather, but the U.S. Navy has said it is confident in the vessel’s seaworthiness, the Portland Press Herald reports.
The ship is named after decorated Naval officer Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who died in 2000.
The U.S. Navy plans to build two more ships to complete the Zumwalt class.
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