Navy Zuwalt Destroyer Program Ends

PORTLAND, Maine—Growing costs and vulnerability to anti-ship missiles sank the Navy's once-heralded "stealth destroyer," a highly advanced warship designed to slip close to the shore unnoticed and pummel targets with big guns boasting pinpoint accuracy.

Faced with cost estimates upward of $5 billion per ship, the Navy had no choice but to let its prized Zumwalt destroyer program end after the first two ships are built, analysts said Wednesday.

Congressional investigators long had been concerned that the Navy tried to incorporate too many new technologies on an untested platform. The originally envisioned 32 ships dipped to 12 and then seven as costs grew.

"I don't think this thing was a shock because fundamentally the whole program was a big fat target for many years," said Jay Korman, defense analyst at The Avascent Group.

Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday after additional briefings that the Navy plans to build nine more of its current Arleigh Burke destroyers, possibly with some added capabilities that went into the newer warship.

After talking with Bath Iron Works president Dugan Shipway, Collins said the General Dynamics subsidiary on the Maine coast would need to build seven of those nine ships to make up for the loss of the Zumwalt program. Instead, she said the Navy has promised only that a "majority" of the ships will go to Bath, which is building one of the two Zumwalt DDG-1000 destroyers.

That sets the stage for a battle between the Maine and Mississippi congressional delegations for the additional Burke ships.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to get a good outcome for the skilled workers at Bath Iron Works. They're my top priority," said Collins, R-Maine.

Northrop Grumman's Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi will build the second Zumwalt destroyer.

Wall Street didn't seem alarmed by the decision. General Dynamics shares rose by $5.82 to close at $89.27 on the New York Stock Exchange after the company reported higher earnings; Northrop Grumman closed at $68.12, up $1.41.

The DDG-1000's growing cost came as the Navy is trying to expand to a 313-ship fleet. Officially, the ships are to cost roughly double the $1.3 billion price of a Burke destroyer. But estimates for the first two run as high as $5 billion.

Loren Thompson, an defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, said the Navy can't afford the DDG-1000 but it can't afford to stop building ships, either, if it wants to achieve its shipbuilding goals and maintain a shipbuilding infrastructure.

Another problem with the DDG-1000 design was its potential vulnerability. Bombarding the shore with guns is cheaper than using missiles, but the ship would be vulnerable to attack if it came within 100 miles of shore to use its 155-millimeter guns, Thompson said.

"The Navy should have understood a long time ago that putting a $3 billion destroyer off the coast of a hostile country so that it could use gunfire was a dangerous proposition," he said.

Finally, there was no known threat to justify the warship.

Winslow Wheeler from the Center for Defense Information said the ship's demise was because of "cost, complexity and irrelevance."

"Please tell me what this thing would do today, if it were available in Iraq or Afghanistan?" the defense analyst said. "Talk about something that's totally out of control. This thing is a national embarrassment, that's what it is."

For years, it has been one of the Navy's prized programs. It has a low profile and composites in its superstructure for stealth. It also features a form of electric drive propulsion, new combat systems and a new hull form.

Displacing about 14,500 tons, the ship is 50 percent larger than a Burke destroyer but will have half the crew thanks to automated systems.

"I still believe that the ship offers capabilities that the Navy lacks and needs, but it's up to the Navy to determine its military requirement," Collins said.

Neither shipyard had been officially briefed as of Wednesday. The Navy had no official comment on its plans, either for scrapping the Zumwalt program or for building additional Burke destroyers.

"One thing is for sure, we stand ready to build it, whatever it is," Nicholas Chabraja, General Dynamics' chief executive, said Wednesday in a conference call.

Northrop Grumman expressed a similar sentiment.

"We are positioned to support the U.S. Navy to execute the shipbuilding plan which they identify as best meeting their operational requirements and addressing the needs of our nation," spokeswoman Jerri Dickseski said in a statement.

Mexican Navy Seizes Cocaine Sub

The Mexican navy says it has seized nearly six tonnes of cocaine found inside a 10m-long (31ft) makeshift submarine in the Pacific Ocean.

A naval spokesman said they had known about such submarines but this was the first time they had seen one. US intelligence helped in the operation.

Four Colombian crew members have been taken into custody.

In a separate development Mexico's army seized at least 12 tonnes of marijuana in the city of Tijuana.

The haul is the largest since President Felipe Calderon sent thousands of troops to the region along the border with the US.


The submarine had been carrying its cargo from Colombia towards the coast of Mexico when it was intercepted on Wednesday. It took the navy two days to tow it to shore.


The cocaine was inside sealed packages on board the sub. The US Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, revealed on Friday that US intelligence had led Mexican forces to the submarine.

"We shared information with the Mexican navy, but the Mexican navy acted alone. It was actually their seizure, their marines, their helicopters and naval vessels that captured the submarine," Mr Chertoff said on a visit to Mexico City.

Mexican Vice-Admiral Jose Maria Ortegon Cisneros said that the drugs were in 257 packages wrapped in black plastic.

He said that the submarine was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and a compass.

"This is going to force us to intensify our aerial surveillance, because the freeboard (distance from the deck to the water) of this sub is not detected by radars or any type of electronic detection device," he told reporters in Salina Cruz in the state of Oaxaca.

"Four people were detained. Based on their statements they say they left from Colombia. They did not specify from what port. Three of them are from Buenaventura and the other from a town in the centre of Colombia."

He added that the navy had stepped up patrols in the area where the sub was seized.

The crew claimed to be fishermen forced by drug cartels to move the cargo, said Vice Admiral Cisneros. They said they had sailed from Colombia about a week ago.

'Symbolic' victory

Meanwhile, the 12 tonnes of marijuana seized in the border city of Tijuana was the single biggest haul of the drug since President Felipe Calderon sent more than 25,000 troops to the region last year to tackle trafficking.

Officials said that about three tonnes of the drug were found in a stolen car on Thursday while the rest was discovered on Friday.

So far in 2008 the Mexican army says it has confiscated more than 500 tonnes of marijuana in the state of Baja California alone.

Mr Calderon came to power in 2007 promising to rid Mexico of organised and drug-related crime.

But the BBC's Americas editor, Emilio San Pedro, says that despite celebrations at the military barracks in Tijuana, this seizure - no matter how large - is mostly a symbolic victory as it is far from a death blow to the cartel bosses.

Authorities say the traffickers are extremely organised and far from willing to give up their lucrative enterprise, which earns them tens of millions of dollars every year.

Navy Gets It's Share & More with Dale Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Navy Team Up To Promote Boot Camp

The U.S. Navy and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Friday announced the formation of the Dale Jr. Division, an 88-person boot camp division at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois. To launch the division, Earnhardt Jr. will drive the JR Motorsports No. 83 Navy Dale Jr. Division Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on May 24. The national recruiting effort will be supported by a national advertising and marketing campaign. Recruits who sign up for the Dale Jr. Division will be commissioned by Earnhardt, who will again visit the recruits upon completion of their seven-to-eight week course. Also, Brad Keselowski, driver of the JR Motorsports’ Nationwide Series No. 88 Navy Chevrolet, will join the division during training to learn the boot camp basics (Navy).

Navy Enlists Earnhardt Jr.'s Help To Promote Recruitment Initiative

CALL TO SERVE: In Birmingham, Daniel Blank noted of the 10,000 people who will pass through a display on a typical race weekend, the Navy "anticipates on developing approximately 300 leads for recruits." The Navy spends around $6.5M from its publicly funded general advertising budget to sponsor JR Motorsports' No. 88 car "and to set up the interactive displays." Navy Motorsports Program Manager Andrea Ross, who estimated the Navy has "already received nearly $6[M] worth of advertising exposure after eight races," said, "What we're looking for in this program is brand awareness, recruiting and retention. At the end of the day, we look at all these metrics to decide if our participation in the sport is worthwhile. Where we are right now with our partnership with JR Motorsports, we feel it is." Chief of Naval Personnel Capt. Jack Hanzlik said of the Dale Jr. Division, "It's the first time we've ever partnered with a celebrity, industry leader, in a call to action service"

A warship built at Hunters Point is to be sunk

A once powerful guided-missile cruiser that was built at San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, fought in the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, and was then mothballed in Suisun Bay, is scheduled to be towed to sea today to be strafed, torpedoed and sunk by allied forces in the Pacific.

The Horne (CG-30) was named for a Navy admiral who began his career on sailing ships at the turn of the 20th century, and will be remembered by legions of former crew members who served on the ship during its quarter-century of service. The ship's passing echoes a bygone era when San Francisco Bay was ringed with naval bases and warships were often seen.

Capt. Tim Lockwood of the fleet ocean tug Navajo said he plans to tow the Horne beneath the Golden Gate this afternoon on its final voyage toward Hawaii, where a multinational exercise is scheduled to use the cruiser's steel hull and superstructure for target practice.

Navy ship from Bremerton to be sunk

As Rough As It May Seem,It's Still Steady As You Go...

BREMERTON, Wash. -- A Navy destroyer that had been mothballed at Bremerton for six years has been towed away.

The David R. Ray will be used for target practice and sunk next week near Hawaii in the Rim of the Pacific war exercise. The exercise will involve ships, submarines and aircraft from 10 nations.

The 31-year-old Ray had been based at Everett before it was decommissioned in 2002.

State Rep. Larry Seaquist of Gig Harbor was the destroyer's commanding officer from 1981-1983 when it operated several months in the Persian Gulf and traveled to the South China Sea. He says the crew nicknamed the ship the "Malacca Marauder" for the straits it passed through.


I personally think this not the best practice by any nation.This goes on with the Australian, Canadian Navies and others as shown in the videos.