Navy Wants Last Zumwalt Destroyer in Mississippi to Finalize Combat System; Delivery Anticipated...

Guided-missile destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) will head to a Mississippi shipyard to finalize the ship’s combat system activation, USNI News has learned.

The 16,000-ton ship completed builder’s trails earlier this month in the Atlantic and returned to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine to finalize Johnson’s basic hull, mechanical and electrical systems before heading to the Huntington Ingalls Industries Ingalls Shipbuilding on the Gulf Coast later this year, Navy officials told USNI News.

The move to complete the installation and testing of the ship’s air search radar, vertical launch missile cells and other components that comprise the combat system at Ingalls is a break from how the previous two Zumwalts – USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) and USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1002) – handled their combat activations.

Zumwalt and Monsoor both delivered and commissioned before transiting from Bath, Maine to Naval Station San Diego, Calif., for the complete combat system activation. Space at Bath is at a premium and the decision was made for a hybrid delivery of the ships to free up room and resources for the yard’s work on the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) of guided-missile destroyers, which are behind schedule.

The heart of the Zumwalt-class is the Integrated Power System, a complex electrical grid that routes the power from the ships engines across the ship, rather than a direct mechanical connection to the ships. The electricity generated by ships in the Zumwalt class could power a small town and the destroyer has excess energy for a variety of weapons and sensors well into the ship’s service life. However, the complexity of the technology has contributed to delays in delivery of the three-ship class, USNI News has previously reported. The Navy’s dual-delivery scheme was intended, in part, to relieve pressure on the yard.

In a June brief to the Government Accountability Office, the Navy explained its rationale to change the delivery scheme again.