The Military Industrial Complex at Work....or not

[Budge]

"A $4.4 billion US destroyer was touted as one of the most advanced ships in the world. Take a look the USS Zumwalt, which has since been called a 'failed ship concept.'"

"As a 2018 report from Military Watch Magazine noted the Zumwalts "suffered from poorly functioning weapons, stalling engines, and an underperformance in their stealth capabilities, among other shortcomings."

"They have almost entirely failed to fulfill the originally intended role of multipurpose destroyer warships, while the scale of cost overruns alone brings the viability of the program into question even if the destroyers were able to function as intended," the outlet said.

The Zumwalts lack several vital features, including anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes, and long-range area-air defense missiles, the military expert Sebastian Roblin wrote in a 2021 National Interest article. Roblin called the destroyers an "ambitious but failed ship concept."

And, noted Roblin, their weaponry wasn't cheap. The ship's long-range land-attack projectile guided shells cost roughly $800,000 each — about the same price as a cruise missile. The munitions were eventually canceled, considered too pricey to merit producing.

Roblin said the Zumwalt was produced based on "unrealistic" estimates that banked on minimal cost, despite coming in 50% over budget."

"After a disappointing performance, the Navy considered a host of possibilities for the Zumwalts, including refitting them as "dedicated ship hunters," which would mean "sacrificing complex anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities for a specialized long-range anti-ship role," Military Watch Magazine reported in 2018.

That same year, the leader of the US Strategic Command, Gen. John Hyten, posited that the destroyers could be refitted with nuclear cruise missiles.

But earlier this year, the Navy decided to fit the ships with hypersonic missiles by 2025, USNI News reported. Lockheed Martin is set to integrate these missiles on the ship, per Military+Aerospace Electronics.

The Navy's commander of operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, told Breaking Defense in February 2021 that the Zumwalt-class ships would be the first to test out the hypersonic technology.

"That's a focus for us to field that system on the Zumwalt destroyers so that we can prove it and field it fast and then scale it," Gilday said."

https://news.yahoo.com/4-4-billion-us-d ... 44732.html

And the FUBAR carousel goes on making money for the MIC.

Brings me in mind of a song from the 1960s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dvAxA9ib0

[MarkD]

My cousin went to Maverick last night.

Stated people were standing and cheering in the theater at the end.

Top Gun was released in 1986. After the hangover from Nam. After the worst energy crisis in history. And someone had told me war was coming. In the Middle East. Over oil.

Just a coincidence I am sure.

I would not want to live in Venezuela, especially after the latest discussions between Maduro and Jo.