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El Reg reports
Weird new warship USS Zumwalt has broken down while on sea trials, three weeks ahead of her formal commissioning ceremony.
The futuristic $4.4bn vessel, which features a so-called "tumblehome" hull, suffered a seawater leak into the auxiliary lube oil system for one of her main propeller shafts, according to [U.S. Naval Institute] News.
The defect will take about two weeks to repair at US Naval Station Norfolk, it was said.
An absolute behemoth of a ship, the 16,000 ton Zumwalt--almost three times as big as the UK's already large Type 45 destroyers--was intended to be the lead ship of a new class of warships that would have cemented US naval dominance well into the 21st Century.
Instead, the entire program, supposedly for 36 vessels, was [canceled] after the third ship was laid down, thanks to some seriously eye-watering costs. The US Navy has since started buying new-build Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the basic design of which dates back to the mid-1980s.
Previous: The Zumwalt Class Destroyer: Another Defense Department Misstep?
Captain James Kirk Takes US Navy's First Stealth Destroyer Out for Sea Trials
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 22 2016, @06:32PM
New advanced design has a bug.
The future will tell us whether the Zumwalt class was a good or terrible idea, but I'm not sure how "trials lead to minor service-affecting problem being discovered" is actually news. Some peon at the contractor will get yelled at, and the thing will get fixed...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @07:26PM
(Score: 1) by Mike on Thursday September 22 2016, @08:51PM
Let me adjust that for you,
"The first production model car has oil leak during first drive, has to go back to factory for a quick fix" is the car equivalent.
They shoe-horned an awful lot of new ideas into the Zumwalt design. I'm not sure it's good as anything other than a design test platform (and the fact Congress reduced the buy to 3 of them indicates they question the model too), but I'd expect the first production on a new line of anything (like software) to have problems.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday September 22 2016, @08:33PM
Exactly. This is WHY you have sea trials.
Also, "absolute behemoth of a ship, 16,000 ton "?
Really That's what constitutes a behemoth these days? The only thing that makes this seem big is that for some reason the US Navy doesn't like the term "cruiser" any more.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @09:57PM
There are only two kinds of ships.....submarines and targets.