Navy Seeks Great Power Advantage With Stealthy, Hypersonic Armed Zumwalt Destroyer

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) Can a massive surface destroyer, armed with Tomahawk missiles, deck-mounted guns, sensors, antennas and heat-generating onboard electrical power, truly be considered stealthy? Surely, tall, vertical masts, hull-mounted sensors and protruding antenna could never be a low-observable ship, yet performing these missions comprised the technical starting point from which engineers launched into building a first-of-its-kind stealth warship.

Zumwalt Destroyer

The sleek-looking Zumwalt destroyers have been engineered with a suite of cutting edge, next generation technologies to include massive, ship-wide high speed computing, smooth, rounded stealthy configurations, wave-piercing Tumblehome hulls and an electric drive, among other things. Perhaps most of all, the cutting edge Zumwalts will also be receiving hypersonic weapons in 2025, a potentially paradigm-changing development able to position the shift for massive, open water maritime warfare.

The Zumwalt fleet of destroyers, although cut to only three Zumwalts due primarily to cost, are engineered to appear as a small fishing boat to enemy radar. The Zumwalt has a smooth and rounded hull configuration with few sharp edges or angles likely to generate a return signal. The absence of vertical structures and protruding shapes such as large deck-mounted guns, means there are less possible shapes likely to generate a return “ping” or signal from enemy radar. This is survivability enhancing.

While a destroyer as large as the Zumwalt would be very unlikely to generate “no” return signal to enemy radar or sonar, its configuration seems designed to produce a rendering quite different than what it actually is — confusing enemies. This is, in concept, fully aligned with the intended effect of Air Force fighter jets a stealth bombers; they are designed to appear like a “bird” or “insect” in the air to enemy radar.

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Taking a look at the external shape of the Zumwalt, the ship lends itself to a discussion of some of these fundamentals regarding stealth properties. First and foremost, when compared to other surface ships, its shape is, of course, entirely different. There are fewer edges, a conspicuous absence of protruding structures or varied contours and a flat side, seamlessly attached to the upper deck of the ship, on a straight, yet slightly angled flat linear surface.