Zumwalt-Class Destroyers

          The Gulf War of 1990-91 saw the last deployment of our vaunted WWII-era battleships—in naval gunfire support for ground operations ashore.  By then, the cost of maintaining our battleship fleet had become prohibitive.  Yet Congress was keen to revive the gunfire support role with a new class of battleship equivalents.

          Technology answered with the development of the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) a 155 mm munition whose range was extended to 100 NM with rocket assist and fin guidance.  The round could only be fired from the Advanced Gun System (AGS), a Navy-only project.  As a platform, the Navy proposed a new destroyer for whom the AGS would form her main armament.   This “DD-21” design incorporated stealth technology with “tumbledown” surfaces above the waterline that deflect radar signals away from the vessel.  These were the largest destroyers in naval history at 610 feet, fifty feet longer than a Ticonderoga-class cruiser.    A 32-ship series was planned, with the keel of the class leader, USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000) laid on 17 November 2011 at General Dynamic’s Iron Works in Bath, Maine. 

          But costs skyrocketed.  Lockheed Martin’s 2004 estimate for the per-round cost of the LRLQP munition was $35,000.  But by 2016 that per-round cost had risen to $800,000-$1 million. (the cost of a cruise missile).  The expense of the initial 2000-round procurement program mushroomed.  By November 2016 cost-overruns killed the LRLAP munitions program.  And the destroyer herself was equally plagued.  By 2008, the $3.3 billion cost of each DD-21 destroyer had risen to $4.24 billion.  And an extra $9.6 billion had to be pumped into the program for research and development.  Three hulls had been authorized by that date. 

In the interim, a new threat emerged.  Anti-ship missiles in the possession of non-state terrorists like Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen would place the Zumwalts in peril   Such threats were more effectively countered with advanced Arleigh Burke AAW designs.  Then in early 2009 the per-unit cost of the Zumwalts rose to $6.0 billion, triggering a Congressionally mandated re-certification of the entire program.  At this, Secretary of Defense Robert Gatres announced the DDG-1000 program would be capped at the three ships then under construction.  Future resources would be re-directed to the Arleigh Burke program.

Construction proceeded on the three destroyers then building, the AGS being replaced with hypersonic missiles.  USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000) was commissioned on 15 October 2016, and on this date the second destroyer, USS MICHEAL MONSOOR (DDG-1001) entered service, both with our Pacific fleet.  The third destroyer, USS LYNDON B. JOHNSON (DDG-1002) is scheduled to enter service in 2027.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 FEB 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“155 mm/62 (6.1″) Mark 51 Advanced Gun System (AGS)”  Naval Weapons website.  AT:http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_61-62_ags.php,  retrieved 30 June 2022

Eckstein, Megan (4 December 2017). “New Requirements for DDG-1000 Focus on Surface Strike”. USNI News. U.S. Naval Institute. Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. retrieved 2 March 2018.

Kasper, Joakim (20 September 2015). “About the Zumwalt Destroyer”. AeroWeb. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. retrieved 25 October 2015.

LaGrone, Sam. “Navy Planning on Not Buying More LRLAP Rounds for Zumwalt Class.”  USNI, 16 November 2016.  AT:https://news.usni.org/2016/11/07/navy-planning-not-buying-lrlap-rounds, retrieved 29 November 2025.

Larter, David B. “The US Navy’s last stealth destroyer is in the water.”  Defense News, 10 Dec 2018, AT: https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2018/12/10/the-us-navys-last-stealth-destroyer-is-in-the-water/, retrieved 28 November 2025.

Lundquist, Edward. “The Navy’s Battlewagon of the 21st Century”. Marinelink.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. retrieved 5 April 2019

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  By 2016, the Advanced Gun System (AGS) had already been installed on the three Zumwalts then building.  The cancellation of the munitions program rendered these guns useless.  They were removed and replaced with hypersonic missile launchers.

Traditionally, destroyers are named for naval heroes.  ZUMWALT remembers Vietnam-era CNO ADM Elmo Zumwalt.  MONSOOR is named for MA2 Michael Monsoor, a Medal of Honoree and Navy SEAL from the Iraq War in 2006.  JOHNSON, of course, remembers our former Navy officer and 36^th Commander-in-Chief.

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