US ready to pull the plug on zumwalt destroyer ship

Navy leaders are ready to pull the plug on plans to build a fleet of large surface warships designed specifically for long-range shore bombardment -- a role filled during World War II by the Navy's battleships and heavy cruisers.

The issue revolves around the Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyer, a 600-foot 14,800-ton maritime behemoth designed around the Advanced Gun System (AGS), a 155-millimeter cannon designed to hurl special shells as far as 83 nautical miles at a rate of 10 rounds per minute.

Navy leaders went forward with the Zumwalt destroyer program on the assumption that they would build 32 of these formidable shore-bombardment warships. Since then the number of planned Zumwalt destroyers dwindled to seven, and now to three.

The third ship of the class, the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, is at the eye of the storm. Navy leaders are considering scrapping the third Zumwalt land-attack destroyer, even though the vessel is already under construction, in efforts to cut the rising costs of the program.

[link to www.militaryaerospace.com]