The world's largest destroyer USS Zumwalt was named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the youngest commander of naval operations in US history. The ship is a missile destroyer, which means that its main purpose is anti-aircraft support for the US Navy fleet.
Construction of the ship began in October 2008. It was launched in October 2013 and commissioned in October 2016. There are two more Zumwalt-class destroyers in the US Navy: USS Michael Monsoor and USS Lyndon B. Johnson.
The USS Zumwalt cost American taxpayers $4.4 billion, making it the most expensive US Navy destroyer at the time. According to the Associated Press, the ship costs twice as much as some of the most powerful ships in the US Navy, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
The knife-like bow of the ship makes it more stable in rough seas than other surface warships. The ship is 183 meters long and can accommodate 158 crew members. It has a constant speed of 30 knots (55 km/h) and a displacement of about 16,000 tons.
According to the US Indo-Pacific Command, USS Zumwalt produces about 78 megawatts of power, which is similar to the power generated by a nuclear aircraft carrier.
On board the destroyer is a multifunctional radar. It also has 80 advanced vertical launch cells for certain types of missiles.
Despite its cost, Zumwalt had hardware issues. Shortly after commissioning in 2016, the fabulously expensive guided-missile destroyer broke down in the Panama Canal. The second ship of the class, USS Michael Monsoor, failed during sea trials the following year.
According to the 2018 Military Watch Magazine, the Zumwalt-class "suffered from poorly functioning weapons, stalled engines, and insufficient stealth effectiveness, among other deficiencies."
“They almost completely failed to fulfill their originally intended role as multi-purpose destroyer warships, while the scale of cost overruns itself calls into question the viability of the program, even if the destroyers could function as intended,”
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