Latest news with #Zumwalt-class
Newsweek
23-04-2025
- General
- Newsweek
Map Follows US Stealth Warship Through Pacific Waters
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A map by Newsweek shows that USS Michael Monsoor, an American warship built with stealth features, has been underway in the Pacific Ocean after departing its home port in late March. The United States Seventh Fleet previously confirmed the Michael Monsoor's deployment to Newsweek, saying its presence in the Western Pacific Ocean "highlights the U.S. Navy's commitment to maintaining peace, security, and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific." Why It Matters The deployment of the Michael Monsoor, which is a Zumwalt-class destroyer, comes as the U.S. seeks to maintain its naval dominance in the Indo-Pacific region. China is expanding its naval reach and presence with a fleet of over 370 vessels, the world's largest by hull count. The Michael Monsoor and its two sister ships, USS Zumwalt and USS Lyndon B. Johnson, have a rather unusual appearance compared with other U.S. destroyers. They are designed with a tumblehome hull to reduce radar reflection, making them more difficult to detect. The Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers are now undergoing major modification, which will see them replace one of their two 155 mm naval guns with four launch tubes for hypersonic missiles, a superfast weapon that can travel at over five times the speed of sound. What To Know The nearly 16,000-ton Michael Monsoor, which currently has 80 tubes for launching a variety of missiles in its original armament configuration, departed its home port at Naval Base San Diego on March 28, according to photos released by the U.S. Navy. The destroyer USS Michael Monsoor departs Naval Base San Diego on March 28, 2025. The destroyer USS Michael Monsoor departs Naval Base San Diego on March 28, 2025. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Indra Beaufort/U.S. Navy Following a westward transit across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the stealth destroyer arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii on April 3. A week later, it was operating in the Western Pacific Ocean, which is part of the U.S. Seventh Fleet's area of operations. The Michael Monsoor was seen sailing with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in a photo taken on April 10. The destroyer can operate independently or as part of a carrier strike group, Lieutenant Victor Murkowski, U.S. Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Officer, told Newsweek. On April 17, the Michael Monsoor made a port call on the island of Guam, the westernmost U.S. territory, which forms part of the Second Island Chain, part of a U.S. containment strategy designed to restrict China's military access to the Pacific Ocean in the event of conflict. According to a website that records U.S. naval vessels' deployments, the Michael Monsoor moored at Naval Base Guam for a four-day visit. The U.S. Navy said the destroyer is now assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15, the U.S. Seventh Fleet's principal surface force. The Nimitz left Guam with destroyers USS Gridley and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee on Monday, following a scheduled port visit that began on Friday. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Western Pacific, the U.S. Navy said. What People Are Saying Lieutenant Victor Murkowski, U.S. Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Officer, told Newsweek: "The Michael Monsoor is a visible and powerful symbol of the U.S. commitment to a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific and its presence in the theater demonstrates our ability to integrate emerging technology into real-world operations to rapidly advance our ability to deter, defend, and if necessary, defeat aggression." The U.S. Navy said: "Stealthy, powerful, and lethal, the Navy created the Zumwalt-class to bridge from current needs to future capabilities, adding space and power accommodating systems not yet imagined but designed to counter adversaries that challenge us now and in the decades to come ... these ships are equipped with numerous advanced technology and survivability systems." What Happens Next It was not immediately clear whether the Michael Monsoor will continue operating as part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group. It remains to be seen if the stealth destroyer will transit the contested waters in the Western Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea.
Miami Herald
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
US ‘Next-Generation' Warship Flexes Muscles in West Pacific
A United States "next-generation multi-mission destroyer" is currently operating in the Western Pacific Ocean, Newsweek has learned. This comes as the Pentagon continues to deploy its most capable warships to the region with China expanding its naval power. Lieutenant Victor Murkowski, U.S. Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Officer, confirmed the deployment of USS Michael Monsoor in response to an inquiry, saying this is a "visible and powerful symbol" of the U.S. commitment to a "secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific." Newsweek has emailed both the Chinese defense and foreign ministries for comment. China is challenging America's naval dominance in the Western Pacific Ocean with the largest navy in the world by hull count. The Chinese military has expanded its reach and presence by building advanced warships and operating far from the country's coastline. Facing the threat posed by the Chinese navy, which has over 370 ships and submarines, the U.S. has sent warships to the Western Pacific Ocean following upgrades, including a laser-armed destroyer and an aircraft carrier that has stealth fighter jets embarked aboard. The deployment of the Michael Monsoor was first revealed in a set of photos released by the U.S. Navy on Friday, which showed the warship sailing in formation the previous day with a naval strike group led by USS Nimitz, the oldest U.S. aircraft carrier in service. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was in the U.S. Seventh Fleet's area of operations, which covers the Western Pacific Ocean, for a scheduled deployment. The Nimitz replaced sister ship USS Carl Vinson as the latter was retasked by the Pentagon from the region to the Middle East. The Michael Monsoor's presence in the Western Pacific Ocean "demonstrates our ability to integrate emerging technology into real-world operations to rapidly advance our ability to deter, defend, and if necessary, defeat aggression," Murkowski explained to Newsweek. The warship is capable of operating independently or as part of a carrier strike group, a surface action group, or an expeditionary strike group, the spokesperson said in an email. The nearly 16,000-ton destroyer was commissioned in 2019 and is homeported at Naval Base San Diego in California. It is the second ship of the Zumwalt-class, "the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world," the U.S. Navy said. The Michael Monsoor and its two sister ships will be the first American vessels to be armed with hypersonic missiles, which can travel at over five times the speed of sound. On March 28, the Michael Monsoor was spotted departing from its home port. It was not clear how long it will be deployed. It is expected to arrive at a shipyard in 2026 for the installation of tubes for launching hypersonic missiles, the U.S. Naval Institute-run USNI News reported. This was not the first time the U.S. Navy has sent a stealthy Zumwalt-class vessel to the west of the International Date Line. In 2022, USS Zumwalt, the lead ship of its class, executed a three-month operational testing period in both the Eastern and Western Pacific Oceans. Lieutenant Victor Murkowski, U.S. Seventh Fleet Public Affairs Officer, said: "The U.S. Navy routinely operates throughout the Indo-Pacific in accordance with international law and remains focused on strengthening interoperability with allies and partners, enhancing maritime domain awareness, and supporting regional stability, in order to deter aggression and maintain peace and security in the region." The U.S. Navy said: "The Zumwalt-class destroyer performs a range of deterrence, power projection, sea control, and command and control missions while allowing the Navy to evolve with new systems and missions…Designed to combat the threats of today as well as those of coming decades, these ships are equipped with numerous advanced technology and survivability systems." It remains to be seen whether the Michael Monsoor will continue to operate as part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group during the latter's deployment in the Western Pacific Ocean. Related Articles One Month of US Airstrikes Fail to Stop HouthisTrump: Iran Decision Coming 'Very Quickly'How to Watch Canada vs. United States: Live Stream 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship, TV ChannelMap Shows How Trump, Putin and Xi Could Carve Up the Globe 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What's wrong with US shipbuilding? A top Trump advisor called it an 'absolute mess' as Musk's DOGE eyes military waste
President Trump has directed Elon Musk's DOGE to investigate wasteful Pentagon spending. White House NSA advisor Mike Waltz called US shipbuilding as "an absolute mess." Problems like ballooning costs, delays, and a hollowed industrial base are impacting shipbuilding. President Donald Trump has given Elon Musk's DOGE a new target — the Department of Defense. The White House expects it to find billions of dollars in waste, including in what his national security adviser called the "absolute mess" in US shipbuilding. This opens the door to DOGE cost-cutters trying to fire their way to efficiency in the federal bureaucracy that oversees shipbuilding, one part of the system struggling to design, buy, and build American warships. The largest problem driving the ship delays and soaring costs, per naval analysts, is one not easily solved: The decline of the US shipbuilding industry and the shrinking of its workforce. This weekend, President Donald Trump said he expected Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to "find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse" in the Pentagon. The Department of Defense's budget is over $800 billion, and it failed its seventh consecutive audit last year, meaning there's a lot of funding unaccounted for. The aim is to change that. "We need to know when we spend dollars," Trump's secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said Sunday in an interview with Fox News. "We need to know where they're going and why. That's simple accounting, and that has not existed at the Defense Department." White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, a retired Army colonel, specifically pointed to US military shipbuilding programs as a point of interest. On Sunday, Waltz said on NBC's Meet the Press there was "plenty to look into in shipbuilding, which is an absolute mess, to look into contracting, into procurement." He also expressed concern about the process, which pays shipbuilders to begin working before designs are finished. "You pay people right up front and then they don't deliver for years and years and years," and "maintenance and costs overrun," he said. The US Navy is the most powerful and most advanced naval force in the world today, but the Big Navy programs and industrial base that this force depends are struggling. There has been a string of broken programs, such as the Littoral Combat Ship, some of which are now being decommissioned decades before their time, and the Zumwalt-class destroyers, the mission and armaments for which were a question mark for years. Each of the destroyers costs around $8 billion. The new USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier's development was hamstrung by changing requirements and the integration of dozens of new technologies. It was delivered years behind schedule to the tune of roughly $13 billion. And even now, major programs are facing tremendous delays. Last year, a Navy review found that top military shipbuilding projects, new submarines and surface ships, are delayed by years and facing rising costs. That includes Block IV Virginia-class attack submarines, Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, the Constellation-class guided missile frigate, and the next Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The delays range, but most are a full year or two behind schedule. The design and construction of these warships are overseen by Naval Sea Systems Command, which has a workforce of over 75,000 civilian and military personnel. Lawmakers, officials, government watchdogs, and experts have called attention to American shipbuilding woes, including weakened domestic industrial capacity, budget and schedule issues, and last-minute design changes. Other challenges include the lingering effects of COVID-19, inflation, supply chain breakdowns, and a dwindling workforce. US Navy officials, analysts, and industry experts have said inconsistent defense budgets, shifting Navy requirements and cost estimates, and reduced domestic capacity have been hollowing out the Navy's shipbuilding capabilities for decades. The industrial base has shrunk, and the Navy is reliant on a few shipbuilders for design and construction. This same issue constrains maintenance and repair. Domestic capacity is limited, and international yards aren't an option due to current prohibitions. Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, wrote last year that the Navy needs to break what she called the "doom loop." Shipbuilding, maintenance, and repair costs continue to rise as the fleet ages and shrinks. New construction issues arise in the process. And while the Navy criticizes shipbuilders, shipbuilders are lamenting the rising costs of wages, inflationary pressures, and budget uncertainty. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that under the Navy's 2025 shipbuilding plan, total costs would average $40 billion per year in 2024 for the next 30 years, about 17% more than the Navy estimates. That comes as the Navy prioritizes building a larger fleet with more distributed firepower. The goal is 390 total battleforce ships by 2054. The CBO said that the Navy's plan would put a strain on the US industrial base, meaning "over the next 30 years, the nation's shipyards would need to produce substantially more naval tonnage than they have produced over the past 10 years. The rate of production of nuclear-powered submarines, in particular, would need to increase significantly." America's top rival, China, is the world's leading shipbuilder. It has been building up its navy by leveraging commercial and military shipyards. Unclassified US Navy data indicates China has 230 times the US shipbuilding capacity. Seapower is a critical element of national power. In a potential war with the US, China could have the advantage in combat repair and replacement. The US Navy can't catch up in quantity, but it has options. It is looking into better sustaining its ships and subs, extending the lives of certain assets, fixing maintenance backlogs, and prioritizing autonomous systems. Whether DOGE ultimately targets shipbuilding when it starts looking into the Pentagon remains to be seen. There's a lot of waste in the department and bipartisan concerns about that. The DOGE is acting like an internal consultancy, triggering controversies and alarm as it sweeps through government agencies. Its head, Elon Musk, sought to shut down USAID and tried to access Treasury's tightly controlled payment systems. A review of Pentagon programs could trigger concerns about the security of defense systems and who, exactly, is digging into the department's plans and projects. Read the original article on Business Insider
Asia Times
06-02-2025
- Asia Times
Dark Eagle: America's still flightless hypersonic missile
Is the US Army's Dark Eagle hypersonic missile a crucial breakthrough in an emerging new era of warfare, or an overpriced weapon still struggling to justify its role? This month, The War Zone reported that the US Department of Defense (DOD) remains uncertain about the lethality and survivability of the US Army's Dark Eagle hypersonic missile due to limited test data, according to the DOD's latest annual report. The missile, part of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) system, is designed to equip the US Army and US Navy, including Zumwalt-class destroyers and Block V Virginia-class submarines. Despite a successful test launch in December 2024 from Cape Canaveral, prior testing issues—such as multiple launch cancellations and hardware failures—have delayed the missile's deployment at a time when China and Russia have proven hypersonic weapons in their respective arsenals. The Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) states that tests have not provided sufficient data to determine the missile's operational effectiveness or whether it requires multiple strikes to destroy targets, a key concern given the system's high cost and limited arsenal. Additionally, survivability against kinetic, electronic and cyber threats remains untested. The US Navy has independently tested the missile's warhead, but the results are still under analysis. With the system expected to be fielded by Fiscal year 2027, there is little time for modifications if performance shortfalls arise. The US is prioritizing hypersonic weapons to counter China and Russia, yet gaps in testing mean Dark Eagle's battlefield viability remains unproven. The US Army's Dark Eagle hypersonic weapon is a truck-launched missile system designed to counter enemy anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities. Co-developed with the US Navy, it uses the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) and a two-stage booster. It reaches speeds above Mach 5 and has a reported range of 2,776 kilometers. The first Dark Eagle battery, assigned to the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, faced multiple testing failures, delaying initial fielding to Fiscal Year 2025. However, questions about unresolved cost, technical issues and reliability persist, casting doubt on whether it will truly shift the balance in the US-China missile race. Delving deeper into why the US is trailing in hypersonic weapons development, a July 2024 US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report identifies key gaps in US hypersonic weapon testing that have delayed fielding, including inadequate infrastructure, high costs and limited historical data. Testing requires specialized facilities like wind tunnels and long-range test sites, while flight tests are constrained by the large distances required and the need for extensive sensor coverage. A lack of experience complicates cost estimation and test planning, with unsuccessful tests causing significant delays. As a result, the DOD relies on expert opinions over historical data for cost projections, while digital engineering tools remain underutilized. While a January 2025 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report mentions that the DOD's FY2025 hypersonic research budget surged to US$6.9 billion, reflecting growing urgency, it states that a lack of established programs raises concerns about mission requirements and long-term funding, with delays threatening to widen the capability gap in future missile warfare. Why is the US lagging in hypersonic development while China fields operational systems and Russia deploys them in Ukraine? The answer may be more straightforward than expected—hypersonic weapons are not invincible. Traditional cruise and ballistic missiles offer comparable speed, range and effectiveness, potentially making hypersonics an expensive redundancy. Shawn Rostker mentions in a RealClear Defense article this month that hypersonic weapons, touted for their speed and precision, may be overhyped due to significant technical and strategic shortcomings. Such challenges include immense thermal stress in flight, communications blackout at hypersonic speeds, highly visible launch signatures, aerodynamic drag while maneuvering, immature scramjet technology and fragile electronic components. He argues that US defenses, including Aegis and Patriot PAC-3, can intercept hypersonic weapons traveling at Mach 10 or below during their terminal descent. However, this assumption hinges on ideal engagement conditions. In a January 2022 article for Air & Space Forces Magazine, Abraham Mahshie discusses the capabilities of current missile defenses against hypersonic threats. While the Aegis Baseline 9C capability, including the SPY-1 radar and SM-6 interceptor, can defend against some hypersonic threats, these systems primarily rely on terminal phase interception, which is less effective. Additionally, Mahshie says the curvature of the Earth limits radar detection range, providing only brief response windows. He notes that ground-based radars can detect these threats but are often too late for effective interception, necessitating faster, more agile interceptors and enhanced tracking capabilities. Further, Rostker mentions that while China and Russia allegedly operate hypersonics within the Mach 10-12 range, they would experience enough drag in flight to slow them down enough for Aegis or Patriot to intercept them. He notes that while hypersonic weapons will be part of future US military strategy, they may be overhyped for propaganda and marketing. In line with Rostker's reasoning, a January 2023 US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report suggests hypersonic weapons' value may be exaggerated due to their extreme costs, technical challenges and limited operational advantages over existing alternatives. The report says developing and fielding hypersonic missiles is approximately one-third more expensive than deploying ballistic missiles with maneuverable warheads, which offer comparable speed, range, and accuracy. Moreover, it mentions that hypersonic missiles do not offer significantly greater survivability against missile defenses unless adversaries develop highly effective long-range interceptors, which they currently lack. The CBO highlights ballistic missiles with maneuverable warheads and subsonic cruise missiles as viable alternatives, providing comparable capabilities at lower costs and with fewer technical challenges. With soaring costs, unresolved technical hurdles and credible alternatives, Dark Eagle risks becoming another DOD white elephant. Meanwhile, China and Russia continue advancing their hypersonic arsenals—potentially leaving the US to question whether it's competing in the right arms race.
