On 4/19/14, 5:20 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/19/2014 5:11 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 4/19/14, 4:52 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 4/19/14, 4:45 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/19/2014 4:32 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 4/19/14, 3:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/19/2014 2:25 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:



A $3 billion ship...with IPS drives. It ought to be good for a few
laughs in the future.


"The ship took about three years to complete and was perhaps the most
advanced warship of its time."

Oh, that's not the USS Zumwalt. It's the USS Princeton,
commissioned in
1843 and the first US Naval ship to be driven by a propeller
instead of
sails or paddlewheels.

And they call me Mr. Luddite.


The Zumwalt looks as if it would roll over in heavy beam seas, but I'm
sure the design was tank-tested for that. I read that the "tumblehome"
design is supposed to minimize it's radar footprint, but really, a
ship
two thirds the length of a New Jersey class WWII battleship is
going to
be pretty easy to spot at sea, from the air, or from a satellite.



You forget. Oceans are big. A 600+' ship is a speck from the air or
space unless you know exactly where to look for it. It is said that
the radar signature of the Zumwalt is about that of a small sailboat.




Hi-res satellite photos aren't going to mistake a 600' target for a
small sailboat.

Oh, and let's not forget the heat bloom from the ship's power plants...
2 Rolls-Royce Marine Trent-30 gas turbines plus 2 Rolls-Royce RR4500 gas
turbine generator sets. Easily picked up by satellite or even airborne
subhunters. And how about the wakes and ocean turbulence? This is a ship
so large it cannot really hide.

And even if it were sent to assist in a military mission against an
enemy without high tech detection devices, the odds are that enemy has
friendly nations with satellites that will supply it with the necessary
data.


"The new destroyer was designed to operate both in the open ocean and in
shallow, offshore waters. And it incorporates several stealth features,
including: a wave-piercing hull that leaves almost no wake; an exhaust
suppressor to reduce the vessel’s infrared (heat) signature; and an
exterior that slopes inward at a steep angle, creating a radar signature
said to be no larger than a fishing boat’s."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/introducing-the-uss-zumwalt-the-stealth-destroyer-38028566/?no-ist





Leaving almost no wake and reducing the heat signature to make it
"stealthy" implies certain knowledge of everyone else's technology, and
that there is no further development in same. Whatever the Navy does, it
doesn't have a cloaking device and the ship will be visible.