In the recent past, the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) was among the handful of ships in naval history that have stirred up debates to an extreme degree, and at the same time, have also made people give it a chance by showing a cautiously optimistic attitude. Originally, this ship was a brilliant example of next-gen warship design—an all-around, stealthy destroyer that could go both sides of current or future threats and was expected to set the sea ablaze with its innovations. But to date, the journey of this ship has been quite eventful, with its past being heavily influenced by technical mishaps, uncontrolled expenditures, and changing strategic directives.
The Zumwalt-class was designed to meet today’s demands while also anticipating tomorrow’s challenges. Its wave-piercing tumblehome hull, radar-low profile, and powerplant combined into a ship that produces 78 megawatts of electricity—enough to energize a small town—represented a quantum leap in naval design.
With a radar cross-section considerably smaller than that of the Arleigh Burke class, a composite superstructure, and electronically steered arrays, Zumwalt was designed to evade enemy sensors. But things soon came back to reality.
Three of the planned 32 ships were manufactured for more than $4 billion each. The 155mm Advanced Gun System, for long-distance fire support, was made unfeasible by the cost of ammunition at $800,000 a round. The Navy possessed strong guns, but no effective way to put them to use.
In 2023, the ship was extensively transformed. The Navy started fitting the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile system. At HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, crews removed the old gun systems and fitted new launch tubes for Intermediate-Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) missiles. By December 2024, the ship was ready to return to active service with the fleet.
The CPS program is a Navy-Army partnership. Its hypersonic cruise missile, launched through a rocket booster and capable of Mach 6 speeds, follows a boost-glide trajectory and is hence extremely difficult to intercept.
Zumwalt’s new three-tube sets replaced the legacy gun turrets, giving the ship the capability to carry up to 12 hypersonics. Besides, its 80 Mk 57 Vertical Launch System cells are available for Tomahawks, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, Standard Missiles, and Vertical Launch ASROC, giving the ship maximum flexibility. HII is also modifying Mk 41 and Mk 57 systems to allow Zumwalt-class ships to fire any missile from any cell, further boosting combat flexibility.
Strategically, the transformation reflects the accelerating pace of worldwide naval innovation. The surface warships and missile defense systems are transforming at a rapid pace, and Zumwalt’s stealthiness, speed, and hypersonic reach enable it to strike high-value, time-sensitive targets far into enemy defenses without being seen—something increasingly vital in disputed seas.
Nevertheless, there are still some issues. While the ship’s unique refracted hull design is ideal for stealth, it is still vulnerable to rough seas, and the lack of close-in weapon systems is an insufficiency. Since there are only three ships of this class, fully loaded with high technology, a great amount of money is needed for their maintenance and upgrading.
Some systems will be standardized as planned to replace Zumwalt’s specific radar and combat technology that have common equipment, for example, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) and the Aegis Combat System, so as to cut down the costs of operation.
The broader naval environment is also challenging. Sustaining older Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers overextends fleet resources, whereas next-generation ships of the DDG(X) are still on the drawing board. Even as international shipbuilding is picking up pace, the biggest question that lingers is: would better technology be enough to counteract the advantage of sheer numbers in sea battles in the future?