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DDX Zumwalt Class Destroyer
The Zumwalt-class destroyer (DDG-1000) is a planned class of United States Navy destroyers, designed as multi-mission ship with a focus on land attack. The class, originally called the DD(X), is a scaled-back project that emerged after funding cuts to the larger DD-21 vessel program.
The lead ship is named the Zumwalt for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt; following U.S. Navy tradition, it and its sister ships will be known as Zumwalt-class ships.
Originally, the Navy had hoped to build 32 of these destroyers. That number was later reduced to 24, then to seven, due to the high cost of new and experimental technologies to be incorporated in the destroyer.[2] The U.S. House of Representatives remains skeptical of the DDG-1000 destroyer program for financial reasons and has therefore allotted the Navy only enough money to begin construction on one DDG-1000 destroyer as a "technology demonstrator." The initial funding allocation for the DDG-1000 destroyer was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007[2]
However, the 2007 appropriations bill passed on September 26, 2006 by the House, and later by the Senate, allotted 2.6 billion USD for the funding and building of two Zumwalt-class destroyers. Under this current plan, Bath Iron Works in Maine and Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi will build one ship each.
Among U. S. warships in development, the DDG-1000 is to be preceded by the Littoral Combat Ship and followed possibly by the CG(X) cruiser, concurrent with the CVN-21 aircraft carrier. The DDG-1000 program resulted from a large re-organization of the DD21 program when Congress cut its budget by over 50% as part of the SC21 program of the 1990s.
The Zumwalt-class destroyers are multi-role and designed for surface warfare, anti-aircraft, and naval fire support. They take the place of the battleships in filling the former congressional mandate for naval fire support, though the requirement was reduced to allow them to fill this role. The most numerous Navy main surface warfare combatants are, and will remain for the foreseeable future, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers. All are part of the Aegis system.
