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| This is the USS Zumwalt destroyer - the perfect weapon against the vast Isis navy |
The following (with comments of this writer) form part of the press release. Read it and weep.
"More than 200 shipbuilders, sailors and residents gathered to watch as the futuristic 600-foot, 15,000-ton USS Zumwalt glided past Fort Popham, accompanied by tugboats.
see picture above
Kelley Campana, a Bath Iron Works employee, said she had goose bumps and tears in her eyes.
mine too Kelley
"This is pretty exciting. It's a great day to be a shipbuilder and to be an American," she said. "It's the first in its class. There's never been anything like it. It looks like the future."
well, yes.
Larry Harris, a retired Raytheon employee who worked on the ship, watched it depart from Bath.
"It's as cool as can be. It's nice to see it underway," he said. "Hopefully, it will perform as advertised."
We hope so too Larry. At $4.4 billion a pop, I would hope so.
"We are absolutely fired up to see Zumwalt get underway. For the crew and all those involved in designing, building, and readying this fantastic ship, this is a huge milestone," the ship's skipper, Navy Capt. James Kirk, said before the ship departed.
Spock here Capt. permission to beam me aboard.
The ship has electric propulsion, new radar and sonar, powerful missiles and guns, and a stealthy design to reduce its radar signature. Advanced automation will allow the warship to operate with a much smaller crew size than current destroyers.
At last...a cost savings
All of that innovation has led to construction delays and a growing price tag. The Zumwalt, the first of three ships in the class, will cost at least $4.4 billion.
We build ships we don't need to fight naval forces that don't exist. We spend $4.4 on something that was originally set to cost $1.2 billion. And we quibble about day care, planned parenthood, food stamps and stuff that is actually good for society.
Cry me a bucket.