Posted on 03/10/2021 9:53:43 AM PST by Incorrigible
The U.S. Navy says the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt successfully completed the second and final phase of its Rough-Water Trials late last year. This involved sending the ship into two real-world storms with waves between around 16 and a half and 20 feet tall. The testing was extremely significant given the ship's inward-sloping tumblehome hull form, which critics have long said would make it a disaster waiting to happen in heavy seas.
Defense News' David Larter was among the first to notice the official announcement about these trials, which took place between October and November 2020. The first storm Zumwalt, also known by its hull number, DDG-1000, sailed through, which had "mid-Sea State 6 wave conditions," according to the Navy, was off the coast of San Francisco in Northern California. The second was near Ketchikan in the Alaskan panhandle and saw waves reach to the top-end of Sea State 6. The World Meteorological Organization's Sea State scale goes from 0 to 9 and Sea State 6, defined as "very rough seas," covers instances where peak wave height is anywhere between 13 and 20 feet.
A team made up of personnel from the Naval Surface Warfare Centers at Carderock in Maryland and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania were responsible for evaluating the performance of the ship and its crew during these trials. This group had already overseen the first phase of the Rough-Water Trials in October 2019, which covered Sea States 2, 3, and 4, and focused on "the seakeeping behavior, structural response, and operability of DDG 1000 in mission-relevant conditions," as well as "how the ship motion conditions affect crew performance." Sea States 2, 3, and 4, range from waves just under 4 feet talk to those cresting at just over eight feet. This all followed earlier Calm-Water Trials off San Clemente Island near San Diego in Southern California.
While the Navy does run simulations and creates models of how it expects different ship types and their crews to hold up under different Sea States, there's no substitute for the real thing. At the same time, the need to perform these trials when the wave conditions are just right can make scheduling difficult...
"You definitely have to get used to the roll, which is very short compared to other ships," Carlson added. "For those of us who have been on [Ticonderoga class] cruisers, especially up top, you kind of lean over 15 degrees and you wonder if you are going to come back. We didn’t experience any of that. As long as you get used to the finer oscillation, it really handles very well."
The Ticonderogas also have notably high superstructures and are, all around, overloaded ships that have a maxed out hullform derived from the earlier Spruance class destroyer. This has left the cruisers with persistent cracking in their aluminum superstructures...
No matter what, the Navy only expects to receive these three DDG-1000s, down from its original plans to acquire a fleet of 32 of these ships. The total program cost for the ships and the advanced technologies within them, at last check, was $26 billion. The trio has long looked set to have an, at best, limited operational utility, and they will all be assigned to Surface Development Squadron One, a unit primarily focused on testing and evaluating new systems, including unmanned platforms, and tactics, techniques, and procedures to go with them.
Still, Zumwalt has now proven its ability, and as a result that of the ships in its class, to make it through very rough seas, an important milestone that puts it one step closer to being able to carry out operational missions, no matter how limited, in more challenging environments.
Whew. That is a relief. It’s a good thing seas never get over 20’ in height.
Did Master Xi approve this?
Hope the navy has the ballast calculations worked out.
What was once old is new again!.................
“Hope the navy has the ballast calculations worked out.”
Waste of time.
Nothing wrong with the design (except cost). Now, if someone could just figure out how to fit a working gun on it.
16 to 20 feet? That’s it? Keep them at the dock. Those ain’t “rough seas”.
The real secret of these with their odd shape is that they are really submarines and can submerge leaving foes to believe it has gone down...
A couple of episodes of Deadliest Catch tells you all you need to know.
Elmo would be disappointed.
That’s rowboat fishing weather actually.
Read the article.
The guns works, they just don’t have any ammo for it...
SO, the same “US Navy Surface Warfare Dept” that designed the thing, that funded the thing, that fought for the thing, that oversaw its construction, went to sea and “tested” the thing in modest sea state storms.
Then they declared it “satisfactory” ... except for a short roll. Which really means it has terrible landing characteristics and will tire the crew at modest sea states.
Never fear. It is named for an Admiral as bad as the design.
I take it the PE does NOT refer tp ‘Professional Engineer’.
Yeah, but a deployed ship will eventually face 40ft seas.
15-20ft is not a valid test.
$8,600,000,000 each.
L
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