Delivery of Zumwalt Warships Delayed
Problems with the complex technology being installed in the new destroyers of the Zumwalt class have forced the Navy and shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works to delay delivery of the first two ships, the US Navy said.
Work at the contractor’s Bath Iron Works unit in Maine has fallen behind “due to the complexity of the first-ever all-electric ship and the particular demand it has created for skilled electricians shipyard-wide,” Commander Thurraya Kent, a Navy spokeswoman. The ships will be delivered a year later than planned.
The three ships are all under construction at GD's shipyard in Bath, Maine. The Zumwalt was launched last October and is now 94 percent complete, Kent said, and the ship is expected to begin engineering sea trials later this year. The Monsoor is scheduled for launch later this year as well.
The Navy is adjusting its official baseline for the $22 billion DDG 1000 ship program to reflect the new delivery dates but the change will not trigger a mandatory review since the resulting cost increase will be under 15 percent, a defense official told Reuters.
The Zumwalt destroyer is designed as a multimission land-attack vessel that will use electricity generated by gas turbines to power all of its systems, including weapons, according to a Navy fact sheet.
Kent said the USS Zumwalt, or DDG 1000, was about 94 percent complete and should be delivered in November 2015 rather than September 2014 as originally planned. She said the company expected to deliver the second ship, DDG 1001, in November 2016, nearly a year after its original due date this December.
There was no change in the scheduled delivery of the third and final ship in the class, DDG 1002, which remains December 2018.
