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By Larry Shaughnessy
(CNN) - The Navy's newest warship slipped out of dry dock this week into the waters of Maine, marking a new era for war fighting at sea.
The USS Zumwalt, the first of the DDG-1000 class of destroyers, is longer, faster and carries state-of-the-art weapons that will allow it to destroy targets at more than 60 miles, according to the Navy.
At 610 feet long and 81 feet wide, the Zumwalt is longer and thinner than the USS Arizona, a battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor. But it weighs about half as much.
Much of the ship's superstructure is wrapped in a huge, canopy made of lightweight carbon fiber composite.
The canopy and the rest of the ship is built on angles that help make it 50 times harder to spot on radar than an ordinary destroyer.
"It has the radar cross-section of a fishing boat," said Chris Johnson a spokesperson for Naval Sea Systems Command.
The Navy had planned to spend up to $9 billion in research and development on the DDG-1000 program and up to $20 billion to design and deliver seven ships. But cost overruns cut production to three ships.
When it begins missions, the Zumwalt will be the largest stealthy ship in the Navy.
Coming out of dry dock at Bath Iron Works in Maine does not mean the ship is ready to put to sea.
The shipbuilder will now begin installing a considerable arsenal of weapons, including two Advanced Gun Systems (AGS), which can fire rocket powered, computer-guided shells that can destroy targets 63 miles away. That's three times farther than ordinary destroyer guns can fire.
The DDX will go to sea with a crew of about 150 as opposed to current destroyers which carry a crew of 275. One reason is the AGS is practically self-firing. It needs no sailors to load the shells or remove the spent rounds.
The Zumwalt will also be equipped with a new missile launching system capable of firing 80 missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and Seasparrow surface to air missiles.
Finally it will be able to carry and launch two Seahawk helicopters or four unmanned aerial vehicles.
Its christening had been been scheduled for last month, but the government shutdown forced the Navy to cancel the ceremony.
It's expected to be rescheduled next spring. The shipbuilder plans to finish construction and turn the ship over to the Navy next year.
I would have rather spent the money on one or two submarines..I believe they are more stealthy, have greater mission diversity, and are more survivable
Wake up and smell the coffee!!!
Do your parents know you are posting here?
While this is cool to look at, with $17 Trillion deficits, do we REALLY need this multi-Billion dollar toy put on the tab too? When is this madness going to stop? We seriously need to cut military spending and do it soon. This is ridiculous.
I agree.
does Obama know?!!!??
Yeah, he knows. It's first mission is to visit you.
Bravo Zulu Zumwalt!
I have highly doubt this is the navy's or any other branch's newest weaponry or vehicle. First I am led to believe that if it was their newest, they probably wouldn't let cnn or any other mainstream media show the entire world including our enemies. The navy had space ships, shuttles, and satellites and youre telling me this is their newest. Im pretty sure the technology used for this destroyer is at least fifty years behind what they are actually capable of, but most of you will look past this kind of observation.
aye zach you don't know nothing so how bout you shut up
He has a right to express his opinion like anyone else.
Instead of telling somebody that he doesn't know. Please, tell us what you know!!!
Do you know who our president is? He's probably already ordered 3 in the name of Iran, Syria and Egypt.
Also the DDX project has been around for a little while and it doesn't give a great deal of spec information like what systems are onboard.
I know a little bit about destroyers because I served on one 😉 the information given sounds pretty correct from what I remember of what I heard about DDX years ago.
Fishing boat: any boat that has a rod and reel held by a person to catch fish.
Oh and by the way, that hull feature makes the Zumwalt fast. That would be a blazing fast destroyer.
What is odd is that a game called warship gunner by koei has this ship design and its armament. It even calls it the Zumwalt class destroyer. It too looks stealthy and has the same hull type and prominent feature (the sharp angle front that goes into the water) It was a popular PS2 game. I still have all 3 versions that came out. The AGS, cruise missile, and ASM are also listed in the game. I can only guess that game developers had a look at the design.
You are correct. The design itself has been in the making for years and not exactly secret. It is confusing that it is larger than a BB, yet classified as a DD. In game anyways.
Waste of money. Spending all that borrowed money to make a better way to kill and destroy.
Absolutely agree with you 100% – this spending is out of control in the military.
ahh transformer dude beat me...
two months from now Boeing will reveal a mass produced mobile suit.
Why do we need Stealth Destroyers? The US NAVY already Owns the 7 Seas!
Wow, next time the US will build Transformers.
How much did the "UGLY" cost?????
Essentially, the AGS systems referred to by the article are conventional Electromagnetic rail guns, unless I'm mistaken.
Yes. But will it be able to beat the NSA?
Actually, not necessarily 'More deadly'. Relative to existing, latest-build legacy destroyers.
And at a cost of around $22B spent to build just 3! destroyers ($7B + per ship)...it's obscenely more expensive and unfortunately, a most proper tribute to the absolutely broken and constipated US Defense acquisition process ongoing today, sad to say.
Flat out there needs to be a comprehensive and radical restructuring of US's strategic planning and a sustainable implementation of acquisition/recapitalization policy.
Forgive me good sir, but that ship looks like it just steamed out of Murmansk. 1960's Soviet architecture...YUCK!!!!!!!
RM2 DeDonato, USS Puget Sound AD-38, 1975 – 1979, NORVA
I agree, its pretty ugly
RM2 US Navy 83-88 USS Merrill DD976
I'm sure the design is more focused on stealth capabilities not aesthetics. I do feel the cost is the ugliest part what's the point who are we threatened by that would cause our country to need such a ship. I would rather see 22 billion put towards our debt, infrastructure or something that would benefit our country with something more than a cool factor.
Good to see some good ol fashioned American Innovation.
That is one uglyass ship. I spent my time in the Nav under Zummi and thanks to his admiralness my uniform looked like a 50's business man's suit...I remember the day I reported aboard the USS Puget Sound AD-38 at D & S piers NORVA. I strolled down the pier and saw a sailor leaving with his seabag over his shoulder wearing the famous dixiecup and did not see it again until I left the NAV 4 years later. As I strolled down the pier for the last time, here came a sailor with his Dixie cup'd uniform! Of all the rotten luck...
You have to understand this is a new Navy where technology rules. I have been in the Navy for 20+ years and I was a skeptic when I returned to sea duty. As a QMC that has been devoted to paper charts and now the Navy has switched all navigation to Digital Nautical Charts that we navigate with and it has been a very reliable piece of technology that I have grown to like and use on a daily bases. Their is no room for old salt dogs anymore, your time has past and the future is here. Lead from the Deck Plates.
Dayum this ship is so cool! DDG-1000. Like Death Destroyer of Gods 1000. Its name and number are futuristic and terrifying. ANd that hull! So cool so wow such future! And Zumwalt. Now thats a cool name. I can just imagine the president saying something like "This is no job for an ordinary vessel. SEND IN THE ZUMWALT 1000!"
AND this ship is gunna have LAZERS in a few years. Frikken lazers! Now who in the world would want to mess with a lazer ship called the Zumwalt 1000? Sounds straight out of the terminator movies.
I admire your enthusiasm, I agree, this is very cool tech.
It would make great television if this bad-boy went up against the Alaskan fishing fleet hunting tuna in the Bering Sea. Tuna Wars... and then maybe sank some 'Greenpea's' boats to show solidarity with Putin.
i wish they could have compared this to a modern fighting ship that we could related to regarding capabilities. The fact they're comparing it to a ship of the stature of the Arizona – which was built well prior to WWII – is insulting. Both to the soldiers that died on that ship (are they trying to compare its power and size to a ship that lost so many soldiers? who does that?) Compare it to something contemporary – and hopefully not one that is now a tomb....
That reply has some merit, but the comparison is a good one to give scale to many attributes and lethality.
yea, but does it have a deck and a blender?
hmm.. me thinks the story not say anything about the hidden emp weaponry..
why else get soo close without being known?
the waters already are.. unless.. 🙂
thomas 🙂
Because the US needs another expensive war machine to kill more people….
Yeah we're so broke, it's all I read and hear from the politicians. We're cutting food stamps...again for the poor. We need to cut cut cut..................except when it comes to the Military industrial complex. Oh and the stock Markets are hitting all time highs....yeah it's a great time to be a 1%
This is really disgusting me.
Cool~!! Another super expensive " Billion $$ TOOL" we need to protect and defend a country with crumbling school systems, failing heathcare and disappearing middle class...! God Bless.....
I couldn't agree with you more. If my family is broke, the last thing I'd do is go out and buy a Ferrari. Our country broke, with 15% of our nation on food stams, yet we have $20 billion borrowed Chinese dollars to build this warship so that we can kill more people in the Middle East? America doesn't need this. I, as an American, don't want this.
Lying and pretending about magic is something we can test. Why lie? Why pretend? Why hide when anyone looks at your fake magic?
But how does it look to a submarine? How much of it is below water and is it obscured on sonar as well as radar? How well would its composite shell hold up (compared to old-fashioned steel alloys) if it was hit by a mine?
I guess it won't matter really, our current set of enemies don't have much of a submarine fleet, but the tech geek in me wants to hear whatever specs are not classified.
Yeah, we pretend to bite on that.
The technology is AMAZING. I measured it. It's only six inches long. If they put them in a bottle and sold them online I bet we could pay for everyones health care.
Now THAT'S funny...
Let's start 2nd American Revolution!!
Let's sink it! American don't need more warship. they're waste of money. Sink it or sell it for metal scrap. Let's place water mine around harbor!!
All you foreigners pretending to be Americans are pathetic losers. Ya know, kinda like Le Democrats. And you think this ship has revealed all its capabilities? Imagine the technology you don't know about yet. If you think this is a waste of money, move to another country.
Hey mike jones, we all migrated to this country at one point in time, so why don't you move to another country.
No, you migrated here. Most of us were BORN here. Migrated here because your own country is a toilet? Probably. There are those of us who have a VESTED interest in our own country, like serving in the armed service to help protect our freedoms that we have decided to allow you to enjoy. Decisions can be changed.
Let's place our bets on our pure heritage. My ancestors where racist Mormons fueled by racists facts.
I fully accept your ability to be "honest".
Okay, so now lies and ignorance are precious moments of history?
If I could afford it I would without thinking twice. Oh Canada oh Canada.....
My mom's side is Norwegian and Native American descended, the Norwegian part came with Columbus, the native part is exactly that NATIVE.
My Father's side is German Irish Turk and Native American and you geussed it been here whether forever or since shortly after its founding.
American's are mixed but what we have now is mostly foriegners who don't give a dam. Not anything like true Americans who bled and died for just a small benefit for their country.
Seriously? You are all ignorant immigrants, the real we have been fighting terrorism since 1492, pox blankets, genocide, residential schools, trail of tears, rape and murder of our women, we the First People are still here, when will you realize that money and DDX's cannot be eaten....
We are the true Americans. We believe in truth, justice and honest discourse. Facts don't lie. Math doesn't lie. History doesn't lie.
I don't need to laugh at you, but you seem to need me to laugh at you.
All of our caucasian ancestors came to US shores from Europe... but since, according to you, they were the 'real' Uhmurikins (thanks for setting us straight with this important new information) that can only mean they lived here in the US before Europe was peopled, went back across the pond to colonize Europe and then returned. It sure is an interesting 'theory'. Yes indeedy.
Mike, I'd absolutely love to emigrate to another nation. Where I don't have a bloated military, people are educated, healthcare is a right and there isn't a school shooting every month....but, oddly enough, those countries don't want Americans.
Why didn't the Government just waste $24 Billion on nothing.....OH.They did.....the government shutdown REPUBS.
Democraps. President and Senate. Been there for 6 years now and didn't pull the plug?
Are you kidding??? – MarxistCare is going to rape and pillage this nation, if left to it's own ways.. The Good Representatives were just trying to help matters along. MARXISTCare MUST be destroyed NOW!
Unless we a going FULL MarxistCare, then this little experiment WILL crash and burn under the word of TEA Party warnings.
There is no chance of 'raping and pillaging' this country. Dubya's Great Recession left no one 'untouched'... didn't you get the memo?
IT's not about Bush anymore, those dollars have been spent. Time to get objective to human nature and the fact that health crd is NOT a right. It is a service. Rights cannot have cost attached to them, it disqualifies their inclusion.
Avengers already have a flying air craft carrier that can blend in with the sky. We're way behind. Come on, spend more money we don't have!
Well, now that our enemies know what it looks like and we've told them what kind of image it presents on a radar screen I'm not sure what the whole point is. Did we have 29 billion dollars just laying around to turn a big dot into a smaller dot?
An RCS (radar cross section) the size of a fishing boat means that enemy radar would not pick up anything.
the reality of war is such that all these weapons are actually to expensive to risk in real combat situations with anything but third world adversaries. aircraft carriers are so vulnerable that have be kept well at sea and cant be brought into areas such as the red sea. a first world country such as france, britain, russia could sink these ships in minutes with just the flip of a toggle switch.
The SBX radar has been described by Lt. Gen Trey Obering (director of MDA) as being able to track an object the size of a baseball over San Francisco in California from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, approximately 2,900 miles (4,700 km) away. A baseball is a lot smaller than a fishing boat, to put it mildly. So much for stealth.
Do the designers actually believe that the Zumwalt will not be easy to spot from a satellite? Really?
@The Integral
We have the only operational SBX radar, and only one of them at that. Your assumption also requires that you know beforehand that this "fishing boat" is an actual threat and must be continuously tracked, which means you need to already have visual confirmation.
@The Integral. For satellite to be effective you have to know where to point your camera. There are millions upon millions of square miles of ocean. Where would you start looking for something that has the cross section of a fishing boat on ground radar?
this destroyer will be a significant deterrent. Best investment the US has made in a long time. matches up with submarines for stealth. Hate to be on the losing end of that stick. Made in America. What's not to like?
I agree! Only in America do we tell all our secret weapons. I'll never forget, three days before we went into Iraq, the news stations were showing maps of how we would attack and when. Freedom of the press. Stupid!
How do you know the press wasn't helping out with the deception? (methinks they were)
Snowden will probably tell the world the secrets behind the technology to the world
What a JOKE (A Bad One) $20,000,000,000 WASTED on Three Ships to fight WWII
Who honestly believes a somewhat smaller RADAR signature has ANY significance
for something as Big and SLOW as a Naval Vessel?
you are correct nasa has no trouble tracking objects in space that are thousands of times smaller than a fishing boat, or maybe there just going crazy with someone elses money?
Tumble home hulls capsize in big seas and when they are breached. Anyone who argues this is not the case because "the ship is lighter" has no idea what they are talking about. This is why the Navy is only going to make 3 of them – this design has no place in conventional naval warfare.
America... F-Yeah! Coming again, to save the mother f'ing day yeah!
Why don't we instead take that 29 billion dollars and support our vets with it, instead?
too many vets and their family are on dope, alcohol or on welfare already. Not sustainable to support them – until they die. Better to hire Blackwater (or Xe if you prefer to call that name).
I hope you're joking with this comment.
If you are in favor of this ridiculous, opulent, useless ornament, then you are one of the following 1) Stupid 2) Stupid, and in the Navy 3) Stupid, and in a defense company that makes these silly ships. 4) Stupid.
Who died and made you a genius on world politics, modern warfare strategy, and the needs of the U.S Navy in the 21st century?
Thank goodness we have this weapon. What's its mission exactly?
Lol. I agree with you.
This is AWESOME.
Awesome like dumping babies into a volcanoe is awesome.
You are obviously not technically inclined nor do you understand how the economy works, just go back to your bean-counting job..
Thanks to whoever it was that lent us the money to build this cool toy! Prolly funny money from the Fed, eh? We got some employment out of it, and what's a few more tens of billions in debt?? Doesn't mean a thing in the context of $17 TRILLION.
RE: "Anonymous
You are obviously not technically inclined nor do you understand how the economy works, just go back to your bean-counting job..."
Eisenhower warned against the dangers of the military-industrial complex that has arisen despite his warnings. Obviously the person you are insulting has been reading after his work 'bean-counting'. At least pretend to be civil.
It's a fantastic ship. Been reading the specs on it for years. I also read some of the comments here, obviously from foreigners, which reek of jealously.
After we get that thing out of the White House we'll be able to build more.
I'm not a foreigner and I think spending $29 billion on stealth boats with a weapons range of 60 miles is incomprehensibly stupid. Maybe we should invest a few billion into stealth cavalry?
Oh! So you're one of those that subscribe to obama's odd notion that a navy shouldn't be part of the modern world. Though we live on a water planet. Learn more.
No, I only subscribe to reality. In reality, there is no threat that this boat is useful against.
I'm an Obama supporter, which doesn't mean I don't back the U.S. military - (having two nephews who are Iraq & Afghanistan war veterans & myself having worked for the U.S. government for over 32 years). Don't "pigeon hole" people just because you have narrow minded views.
Oh, so Tomahawk missiles now can fly only 60 miles, not 1550 miles as before?
More than 60 miles away... More than 60, that means a distance greater that 60 miles. Why dont you ask the Navy what exactly is on the ship and what its limitations are im sure they will be delighted to tell you.
We should spend the $29 billion for the homeless; instead.
Can't think of a better reason to keep the "thug" in office.
BTW, you want a thug, look no further than Dick Cheney. Never saw a country not worth invading or an innocent not worth blasting to smithereens.
They are only going to build 3 because the hull design doesn't work on warships. If it gets hit by enemy fire it will sink. It won't be able to go through big seas. There is a reason nobody makes tumblehome warships anymore, and that is because they performed terribly.
Submarines fill the stealth niche the navy requires, I dont know why they wasted tens of billions on this thing.
You were obviously born with half your brain missing, like those simpletons who like to classify all critics and detractors as "haters".
Do your parents know you are posting here?
This will be the ultimate weapon against Al-Qaeda's navy
Does Al-Qaeda have a navy?
Yes Daniel, Al-Qaeda has a navy. They also have a comedy troupe and their own brand of makeup.
Though it's very Jules Vern looking I think it's ugly
LOL every time you can submit comments anonymously, you can count on the biggest pileocrepp comments anywhere on the web.
A total piece of half messured junk...Americant all the way...
Do you happen to live 63 miles away fro the ship? If so, please send your GPS coordinates to Maine
Not very hard to get 63 miles away from a boat.
I doubt that the public will know everything this love boat is capable of destroying. Hope it will never be needed...mercy. Regardless, a heartfelt thank you to all Vets on this post.
Guess its not stealthy anymore...Way to go CNN for posting our newest totally classified sh.t to the world.
This program was not classified. There have been reports about the USS Zumwalt for years.
Yes, this program as a whole is not classified, along with the fact that the radar cross-section, wake, and other signatures have been greatly reduced (to the point where the Zumwalt wouldn't be detected). However, there are many parts of it that are TS (Top Secret) or Above TS. Those parts haven't and will not be mentioned.
its gonna be a gift to Putin (Obama's boogie man) anyways. Putin "I want this Obama"
Obama "oooo lawdy yez sir"
Hey, genius – if it were classified, CNN (and the many other news organizations publishing stories about it) wouldn't know about it.
I know you need to makes up silly spit because you hate CNN, but in this case, you just look like a fool.
It will have THE advantage over other ships that sail the same seas and strike first. The other combatant ships won't know what hit them. This ship is awesome and the knife edge hull will allow it to get into an advantageous position faster that its opponent. The weapons and warfare stuff is always relative.. the guys with the latest and greatest win. Technology has changed warfare since the caveman first used a club, so hooray for the US.
Doesn't seem to fit the "destroyer" classification anymore. More of a "Universal Warfare Vessel" or something. Capable, no doubt, but too damned expensive IMO. I'd rather see more, smaller vessels with a bit less firepower but covering more areas. This ship is tough, but it's still just one vessel that can only be in one place at a time.
One place is all that is needed guess where?
OK...all of you spell checking grammar freaks....who the hell cares if somebody can't spell or they are not English Teachers or Journalists....This is a Blog for everyone to respond to the issues not Websters Dictionary. Content my good man...content is what we want to see here. Anyone who dismisses the opinion of an American or others on an American Media based Web Site exorcising their freedom of speech graciously given to us by CNN because they can't spell is narrow-minded, and arrogant. Let freedom ring!
Exercising. 🙂
LOL! Oh that's just too good.
You said that very well, Kudos!
Spokin lik a tru American.
CNN gave us freedom of speech? Thanks... that's one of my homework questions...
Americans should concentrate less on warmongering half way around the world and more on fixing their failed government.
Worry about your country, we'll worry about ours.
Ok, time is now, send all our stealth military, lay waste to all Middle and turn it into Agricultural growth for the rest of us.
.....I am worried about our government.
I agree, we spent money worried about others, while we could spend this money on our own infrastructure and become more efficient...
Failed government... well, you're the experts.
Hey bro. Nobody cares. Keep your nose out of our business.
You should do more to stop all the rapes in your country and all the abuses against women and stop blogging here...
I totally agree with you.
Says the guy who's government still believes in and supports the class system... Guess you were lucky enough not to be born into poverty.
Says the country who just trumpeted their own aircraft carrier....before their submarine blew up in service...
Indians should focus more on women's rights, and not go about raping them on public buses.
To create peace and help humanity is more noble than any weapon for war. Any species from the animal kingdom can make war, but it is so much more difficult to create something that benefits all. Any kind of weapon isn't going to make anybody safer. Weapons have been around thousands of years before Christ, so any new weapon isn't going to solve anything.
Didn't the atomic bomb end WWII?
That doesn't matter. There is always going to be war. Our country is still making war over seas, and it's never going to end. One war ends and another one begins. It's always going to be that way.
No, the war was over after Midway. What those did was simply vaporize 100,000 citizens. The single greatest act of human brutality in the history of mankind.
No... Read a book
Weapons keep us safe by making it REALLY REALLY costly for others to do us harm.
If you can destroy your enemies and you are willing it makes others THINK TWICE about harming you.
History is written and by people who could defend themselves, economically, militarily and socially.
The weak will perish.
Well said. And precisely the reason I have a pistol in the house.
My God, Saul. Please, just shut the hell up already. You live on planet Earth in the year 2013. For your records, it's a pretty dangerous place and time to be alive; thus, unlike the utopia in your head, weapons are a necessity in this day in age. I suggest you get a concept and grow up a little, SIr.
It seems to me that the needs of the Navy in the future, and perhaps in the present, would be better served with more smaller and cheaper ships. Patrolling shipping lanes to combat pirates, and reacting to hot spots in third world areas should be ongoing missions. We could build 6 or more Perry class frigates or Freedom class littoral ships for the price of this so called "destroyer". Just seems like overkill to me.
The problem is that those ships don't have much capability in a true war against a powerful enemy. The Zumwalt class destroyers will be able to operate in the littorals because the have very small signatures (radar, sound, ect.). Sadly, there are anti-ship missiles which would be able to take out many ships in the US Navy. These ships also provide more capability than shooting guns and firing missiles. Eventually, when directed energy weapons (lasers) are put on the ship in the 2020s, the Zumwalt-class ships will be able to protect other ships in the fleet even better.
I guess it just depends on what "true" war you're fighting. In a mission to secure shipping lanes from pirates off the horn of Africa, I'll take a few frigates over one over-sized destroyer. Now a battle in the Taiwan straights against China would be a different story. I would ask which scenario is more likely?
The next naval war will be a pitched battle with the Chinese. The Perry class was never a good escort for the carrier, too slow, limited air defense capability, no low frequency sonar. In a fight with the Chinese it is just excess baggage.
yes a few large conventional ships, mid-sized ships and many many drone assets.
As a Scholar in Homeland Security, and a US Navy Veteran working in Counter Intel., Recon., and US Air Force Intel for TAC HQ, six years with Super Carrier Battle Group Surface, and Air Operations, and four years with Operational Research, and Development Flight Test Ops with all branches of the Military, and Allied Military Command with NATO, I can intelligently say that Russia is helping China develop, and deploy three times the Naval capacity that we...the US is developing for operational deployment. This Destroyer is more then necessary. The Nimitz Class Super Carrier Fleet along with our Fleet of Trident "Boomers" Submarines enable a Super Carrier Battle Group operationally deploy and project US Air Power of over a Hundred Air Craft any where in the world at will, and what the Russians, Chinese, and Rogue Terrorist States such as N Korea, Iran, and Syria are deathly afraid of is our Fleet of Trident Nuclear Missile Submarines that can go absolutely any where in the world almost undetected and surface or launch a Sub-Surface ICBM Missile attack that could easily destroy a Continent. Oh yeah.....Secretary of the Navy John Lehman under the Reagan Administration built a 500 Ship Navy that was, and still is second to none. Do you see the Berlin Wall up? Has a Nation-State dared to attack the US Main Land? Our safety, and security all hangs in the balance of America's ability to project Air, and Sea Power with our Special Ops Community deploying our Navy's best....The US Navy Seals created by President Kennedy at the beginning of the Viet-Nam War.
The 500 ship navy was a farce. We could never put all of them to sea at one time. As one returned from deployment it would be cannibalized for parts to send the next group out to sea. I remember pulling fire control gear, trim pumps, etc to get the next sub ready for deployment. At best we cold have put 300 ships and subs to sea...
BIGGER LIGHTER DEADLIER – And featuring a hull shape not used since the 19th century because it capsizes and sinks in rough seas.
Why do you keep saying that? Annoying. Why would a submarine need to perform well in rough seas? Submarines are designed to go below the surface of the water which isn't rough like it is on the surface. Submarines go hundreds of feet below the surface, they don't have to worry about "rough seas" that low.
It's not a submarine.....
Because it's a destroyer not a submarine perhaps?
You're a NUB obviously... Get some dolphins and some time on the pond. Subs have to deal with rough seas as well...
It needs a low radar cross-section and a low wake, which this design provides. Also, it can survive moderately large waves, especially if it points into them. It will just have to avoid huge storms, which I think is an ok trade-off.
Is it just me or does this design look like Capt. Nemo's ship in the League of Extraordinary Gentleman
Well, since the UN black helicopters have been outed, obviously the UN needed a new war machine to invoke the Apocalypse on the USA. The fact that this vessel was meant for a smooth body of water irrefutably "proves" my new conspiracy theory (well, to by the tin-hat wearing bunker-building drunken redneck militia that intends to save us from interracial marriage).
except this ship is much lighter and not very tall. Half of the boat is below the water line. Seems to me its going to be very difficult to capsize.
Seems to me you have no idea what you are talking about. If anything because the ship is lighter it will capsize more easily. One of the main problems with Tumblehome is that when the ship is pitching down in high seas the aft will leave the water and it will lose all stability and simply roll over. FACT.
The hull form underwater is entirely conventional. The design is optimized to reduce pitching and rolling so radar reflectivity is minimized. A wet deck is the accepted trade off. The amount of tumblehome above the waterline is nothing like that used on some early steel combat ships. Not even close.
Or it could be used to slice Greenpeace vessels like butter. Greenpeace 'pirates' are toast. It's all part of the vast Hallie Burton enviro-hatin' conspiracy...
But it can ram othe ships and poke holes in them. Touché!!! Kiss my 20 billion ramrod....
If I was an enemy commander I would not attack this ship until it had been at sea for at least three weeks.
"of the most patriotic things we as Americans can do. I care what these "monster machines" can do, and it damn well better be able to keep me and my family safe."
It doesn't... it was built to fight a war that will never be fought...and if it is fought the world will end and most peoples problems will be over.
The four frigates they dispatched to Syria recently... each has a loadout of 90 Tomahawk missiles... each one of those missiles could be nuclear tipped. That's 360 cities utterly destroyed... enough ash thrown in the atmosphere from the resulting fires to bring about the next ice age.
The U.S. military...doesn't know the meaning of overkill.
Perhaps not, but they do know the meaning of the word "prepared". You're likely one of those folks that complains about your safety when you feel endangered by some event, and then complains about military spending. That or you don't understand the concept of being prepared. If that war "never happens" simply because of the weaponry we have at our disposal, then the cost is worth it. Unfortunately, there is no way to gauge that.
Actually the Navy scrapped this program – they are building 3 instead of 32. Tumblehome hull design hasnt been used in over 100 years for a reason, it can't handle rough seas and if you manage to put a hole in it the thing is going to sink like a bag of bricks.
I have nothing against the U.S. spending money to have a strong practical military, but I don't like the way they use funds to build billion dollar warships, when they still haven't provided the majority of troops with armored IED safe vehicles.
Any ship with a hole in it will sink like a ton of bricks.
Did you see the size of the hole in the Samuel B. Roberts after is struck an Iranian mine in 1988? The explosion penetrated two decks upwards from the ship's bottom, blew the engines off their mounts and cracked the superstructure all the way through. The crew saved her and the ship was repaired and remains in service today.
A sister ship the Stark, was hit by two Exocet missiles a year earlier. Major damage but the crew put the fires out and brought the ship back to the US under it's own power. USS Tripoli hit an Iraqi mine during GW1, putting a 20 ft by 30 ft hole in the hull. The shock of the explosion blew her boilers out. The crew controlled the flooding, relit the boilers and continued with their mission.
A hole in a combat ship does not guarantee it sinks.
People overstate the fallout from nuclear weapons so hard it's not even funny. There are still ridiculous articles out there that say that places where nuclear bombs have hit aren't inhabitable. The 1.6 million people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima would like to dispute those statements. It's apparent to me that if an atomic bomb hit overhead it might kill me, but if I managed to survive it wouldn't be a big deal. 1.6 million people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima will back me up on this.
I'd be willing you bet you can't find one survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts that would characterize the event as "no big deal". Your attempt to trivialize the consequences of a nuclear war undermines any credibility you might have had.
I agree with Air Lar. Your view is short sighted. It seems your point of perspective is in line with all other views aiming at blaming others' solutions, but not giving a solution that would work.
Your post is totally falacious. Specifically, it is the "Straw Man Fallacy", in which one makes up a ridiculous assertion, attributes the ridiculous assertion to someone, and conludes the person is flawed because of the ridiculous assertion. You made up the notion that the Navy would fire 360 nuclear bombs at Syria without any evidence that this would ever occur, then you blame the Navy as being irresponsible.
Think, man, THINK.
Would the Navy REALLY fire 360 nuclear bombs at a small country that is no threat at all the our country?
You do know that the military would never attack another country without orders, right? President Obama would have to order an attack, especially an attack with 'special weapons". Do you think that President Obama would attack Syria with nuclear weapons?
Are you saying that the military would use nuclear weapons without orders from the government?
Time to read up on how things really work!
Respecting the military's ability to anticipate "the next war" comes when one actually does research.
Only our military stresses the importance of cutting edge innovation. (That's why everything is so expensive.)
Leave the military to the experts.
Less fallacies make for better dialog.
First thing, Perry-class frigates, the only frigates the US Navy has right now, can not hold anywhere close to 80 missiles, you must be thinking of Arleigh Burke-Class destroyers. Also, the US doesn't have surface ship nuclear missiles because we have plenty of them in submarines and ICBMs. Missiles from ships are used to precisely hit a target so the the surroundings, including civilians, aren't affected.
Both the US and Italian Navies had cruisers designed to launch Polaris Missiles back in the early 1960s. These were the USS Long Beach and MMI Garibaldi. As it turned out, surface ships pitch and roll where submerged submarines do not, and the missile guidance could not overcome the motion of surface ships sufficiently to permit an acceptable degree of accuracy. They were also more easily targeted than a submerged submarine. The surface launch Polaris program was discontinued.
Surely you're not suggesting there is no collateral damage from a cruise missile strike? That a warhead of that size confines its explosive power and destruction to just the specific target? Nobody is ever affected except the intended target/structure/personnel? You cannot be that naive, can you?
The USA has become the heartless redneck father buying expensive guns and modifying his massive monster truck as his children starve in squalor.
You come across as an elitist jerk when you make comments like that – hope it makes you feel better.
I think he made you think which caused you to feel worse.
Does my mere thinking whilst considering facts and history make me an elitist? My analogy was not meant as an insult to anyone directly, it was entirely metaphorical.
Yet, you come hyperactively nipping at my nonexistent heels like a retarded lapdog defending a caricature of your beloved that I was not even addressing. How sad to be you now – a lap dog barking at shadows.
So you stereotype blue-collar white people and hate them.
Sunday's Gospel was about the Pharasie who prayed "thank you, God, that I am so much better than (those LOW people)"
He definitely referenced a common stereotype, one that DOES exist, but I didn't see any evidence of "hate". Until you brought it up while quoting your particular holy book and this week's fairy tale.
You fail at stereotyping. I was born and raised from blue color stock. I'm blond haired with blue eyes with ancestors dating back to the mayflower (literally). Yet, I worked hard field labor for $1.10 per hour.
I admire true blue color workers that take care of their own. I don't think you know the meaning of work or sacrifice.
I really think one of us might be enriched within an honest discussion of the "low people".
What goes around, comes around. Why does the latest Stealth Destroyer look like the Merrimac?
Good, another piece of hardware,
The trillion to bail wall st. did not build a wheel.
Good job Maine..keep em coming!!
I don't see the advantage. So build a ship killing missile that does not use radar... It locks onto the thermal, acoustic or magnetic signature to destroy this ship. We spend billions on 3 ships, and some despot changes a seeker head and takes this out.
or just drive a small motor boat up against the side while it's in port and blow a huge hole in it, kill a bunch of people, take it out of service, force us to spend another billion to fix it, and embarrass the US in front of the entire world by showing them that a suicide bomber needs less than $10,000 to disable our latest and greatest technology. these expensive toys sure look great on paper, though.
Same can be said for the government welfare complex, with the exception that unlike the military contractors that produce something like a ship or aircraft that is developed under oversight, the government welfare complex provides large numbers of jobs for bureaucrats that only produce more lazy takers and more bureaucrats. The government welfare complex does that at the expense of those who really need the help.
The Zumwalt has worked on lowering all signatures (not just radar). Also to Kevin below (who I can't reply to for some reason), there are armed people on watch while in port. They have thought of that after the USS Cole bombing.
Even if the incoming missile does not have radar, the launch platform must have it to find the ship and aim the missile in the direction of the target ship so the seeker can find it. A low observable ship design makes it very hard, maybe impossible, for an enemy to detect it, much less target it for a missile.
think about the world and the despotic corrupt nations out there that relish the sight of a weakening America. Albert Einstein said it over 60 years ago upon the implementation of the atom bomb: "I know not with what weapons WW III will be fought – but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones." If we don't maintain our ability to defend ourselves and our allies – all will be lost in the not to distant future.
Congrats, you completely missed the point of the quote. He's saying the rising destructive capabilities of weapons will spark a war that creates a devastating wasteland where nobody even has decent weapon technology.
Little late to the party.. Other major powers have had these for years.
What makes you think this is the first one, LOL?
99.9% of the weapons/machinery/etc other countries build for their defense is because they saw it in satellite photos from their spy satellites aimed at the U.S.
(ALEX)I remember a old man told me its better to SHUT up and let everyone think I'm a FOOL,then to open my mouth and remove all doubt.I think you my friend win the DA of the day award.........whew and its only 8:30 here...
Gonna be useful against China.
I know from working on guidance systems on torpedos long ago. THERE IS MORE THAN JUST RADAR as a guidance system. A ship this large can be tracked acoustically, magnetically or via its thermal displacement, or using many other techniques. I can see stealth for a AIRCRAFT, because they move fast, but its way to easy to acquire this huge boat about a dozen other ways. Did anyone else bother to think of this???
I'm sure the signature is minimized acoustically, thermally and magnetically and obviously electronically, granted visually will always be there and satellites will know where the ship is unless it operates in a perpetual nighttime fog...like the concept – but it is hopelessly flawed and a probable waste of money.
Thanks George. This thing is SO BIG and slow, you can probably target it using Google Maps.
Bruce, the stealth isn't for submarines primarily... you are probably correct in your assumption that there are other ways to track a ship this large and slow in the water... however, what the stealth IS good for are the Mach 2+ anti-ship MISSLES from land, air, and sea platforms that are the REAL ship killers.
Submarines are always a threat, but that's why high value assets have friendly submarines surrounding them to protect them to begin with. I get where you're coming from, but you have to look at the big picture, your threat analysis does not include all variables for the justification of the stealthy design.
Current US Navy guy who reads alot.
Bruce, you are aware it uses electric propulsion with the gas turbines and generator sets up in the superstructure rather than down inside the hull? This motors are superconducting and liquid cooled. This is an extremely quiet design.
Joe Navy, I don't know what the flank speed of a Zumwalt is, but the flank speed of a Spruance or Ticonderoga topped 40 kts. Definitely not slow. If you ever rode a Tico at flank speed in a turn you would never forget it. Consider that the longer the waterline of a ship, the faster it can go before it begins to plane (rise up on it's bow wave like a speed boat). I would wager, considering the nature of the propulsion (superconducting electric motors in the hull powered by big gas turbines spinning huge AC alternators mounted in the superstructure to minimize hull penetration) that a Zumwalt will walk away from a Tico. Just a guess, but I have not seen a really slow DD or DDG come out of the US Navy in my lifetime.
lol, only if China is wanting a fight.. which they don't... USA just a bully full of bluster, looking for the next kid to steal lunch money from. Stamping it's foot flexing it's muscles, and being left behind by the world, no one wants to play with you anymore..
Who cares what you think!
We're not "playing", we're keeping the rest of the world safe from the REAL bullies. Maybe someday we'll stop and you all can finally realize how pfhucked you are without the "world's policeman."
The greatest threat this country faces is the uncontrolled greed of the military industrial complex..... fueled by ignorance and paranoia.....that is being pushed on the citizens of this nation....
haha, your country can't even afford these new toys. Embarrassing really! Keep borrowing that money from China.
Yep, while we maintain a dozen carrier battle groups China keeps rolling in the money. China lends us the money and collects interest while we deal with North Korea and threats that are on China's border. Same thing with the Saudis... we protect their behinds with blood and treasure, while they talk about replacing us with a new world currency.
"Debt held by the public currently stands at about 75% of the GDP" (this means the US citizens). "the largest single holder is China, which has, at last count, about $1.3 trillion in U.S. treasury securities, or about 7.8% of the U.S. outstanding debt." Yes, China only owns about 8 percent of the US Debt.
No, China is very far from the largest holder of US debt. The Federal Reserve has more US debt instruments than the Chinese. Their debt holdings are about 2% of GDP, nothing to get excited about.
Way to spend billions on a secret stealth warship and then plaster it all over the media......LOL
Yes, the only thing you can see is the huge trailing price tag.
Looks like the Civil War battelship Merrimac.
Yeah i see that. Designers got away from that forward jutting bow when they realized if you hit anything with it, the damage will be at or below the waterline. I guess destroyers don't do much in the way of ramming these days though.
Ever see how far forward the bow sonar domes of bit low frequency sonars protrude underwater? Or how about the bulbous bows of most modern merchant ships. That design minimizes the bow wave, which in turn minimizes resistance.
Another warship, so we can kill more people...But kids are starving in America today...Priorities?
Well, America does have a history of intervention and kicking the can down the road.
It's a necessary evil. I mean, we could just melt down or sell our weapons to other countries, perhaps stop production all together, but while we are busy discarding our arms, the rest of the world will continue to keep building and improving their arms. I agree with you it, it's a shame that money has to go toward weapons, rather than food, but having high tech pieces like this are more a deterrent, than anything else.
What are you talking about? Our military eclipses all the world's combined armies by far. There is NO need for more.
Dex, the real risk to our national security is that we go bankrupt and lose our financial capacity. The wealth has been moving to Asia for a long time. Asia can do the neat electronics too, after all the chips we use are made there. If our economy collapses under too much debt, or we have our currency replaced as the world currency, then no more battleships, carriers or anything else.
Alex, that statement is entirely false. China's military continues to grow, Russia is still a very capable force to be reckoned with, and there are a few others who still pose a threat to The U.S. My whole point is that The U.S. cannot simply stop building its arms, while the rest of the world continues to build, as that scenario would only guarantee a successful attack and invasion of foreign powers.
Our next war will leave us all devastated, and with no regard,trust or loyalty to any form of Government let alone ourselves.... To James in Maine -->...Our next war will leave us unable to eat the food you now serve in your restaurant, and as for work there will be plenty of that for those lucky enough ??? to be alive and clean...The nuclear clean up, removal of the dead decaying bodies and carcasses all over the world should keep us busy, as we fight off the pains of hunger from rabid famine...Hey !!! How about all the poisons and gases that will be released ??? I'm sure that will be something we all will have to look forward too....Americans really need to WAKE -UP !!! We are hated around the world and screwed over by our own Government.....
Im afraid you are right.
Haha...the zombies don't forget the zombie armies in your nightmarish scenario of death and destruction! I've lived all around the world and your premise that the world hates the US is just plain silly The numbers of citizens in the millions from other countries from every region of the globe that choose to live in the United States illegally also doesn't tend to support your simple conclusions and assertions. You may be self loathing like most leftist and liberal/progressives about your own country and yourself, but hate has not been my experience in the number of countries I've lived in. Maybe it's time to turn off the computer, get out and have a little wider view of reality and the real world, you might find more people liking you.
Nice stealth technology but who's the moron who thought to include a slideshow with this article? Also, why do they park that boxy old submarine-looking thing behind it in every shot?
It's a floating dry dock, that's why it's in the pictures.
Whoever let cameras in to photograph the hull design should be hung in public. What is this administration thinking?
The wave piercing hullform has been used on Australian built catamaran auto ferries for a few decades now. There is nothing even a little bit secret about it.
Oh yeah? the Navy has an invisible ship? well i have TWO invisible ships. prove me wrong.
Along with all your invisible friends
Nice, but just more evidence that the Navy as the "senior" military branch never seems to have issues getting money, but the Army, which bares the brunt of most war duties, had its only stealth project (Comanche) canceled even though the outgoing Sec of Army emphasized it as one of their most important programs. And I can guarantee you helos get more theater use than this destroyer or any of those VSTOL F-35's the marines are getting ever will. Or maybe Comanche was canceled just because the loyal Bushies had it out for Shinseki.
Yes, the Navy should think like the Army. Use a SWARM of cheap ships, not one or two mega expansive and delicate capital ships. If we had to go against China, we'd be dealing with swarms of the enemy. The advantages we had during the Gulf War of using GPS and radar stealth are now fully known by our adversaries.
فقط من قتل جميع من فضلك !!
We will do our best
Why on earth do we need this?
So we can take over the world and make everyone our slaves.
No, it's so the world can join us as salves. Mos of us are already debt slaves.
I think, sir, you are ignorant.
You nailed it, Tom. Thank you. These right-wing politicians in Washington will stop at nothing in order to get a vote, including throwing away our tax money on this kind of idiocy!!!
That presupposes A) you have a submarine, B) you know the general vicinity in order to sneak up on it, C) you can actually sneak up within torpedo range before being blown out of the water.
There's a button on your keyboard labeled 'caps lock'. you should strike that just once then your comments could be read with a bit more sincerity. The immature nature of SHOUTING EVERYTHING YOU SAY does not make your point any stronger, it only serves to show you know nothing about the subject of which you have chosen to speak
The U.S. should drive innovation through research and development of technology and the spending boosts the economy in the long run.
The Marines have been begging Congress since the 1970s for the Navy to build something with big guns to provide the Marines with gunfire support ashore. They are not intended for use against other ships but against land targets in support of amphibious operations.
In yesteryears destroyers were great. Today, even though we think they are stealth destroyers they could be wiped out easily. I would not enjoy being aboard.
I'm sure the Navy would be interested in how you believe they can be easily destroyed.
Says the guy who doesn't even know how to turn off his cap lock.
As retired Navy maybe you can answer this question... Sattellite technology, nuclear prolifferation, remote sensing capabilities, and relatively cheap, but sophisticated targeting (and evasion) electronics make anti-ship weapons really tough to defeat. Targets can be hammered with a high density of "sleeper" mines (even nuclear), homing torpedoes, air-to-sea missiles, and even space-based fires. How can we expect to spend so much on surface ships when they appear so vulnerable – especially as technology is so widely dispersed to our potential enemies? In light of modern warfare advances, aren't we putting too many eggs in one basket?
If you look at the history of modern naval warfare, since the introduction of anti ship missiles in combat in the 1967 Arab Israeli war, most anti-ship missiles have been defeated by electronic countermeasures. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all of the 40 something anti ship missiles fired at the Israelis by the Egyptian and Syrian navies were spoofed by countermeasures. In Operation Praying Mantis, all of the Iranian anti ship missiles fired at our Navy were defeated by countermeasures without resort to using our own defensive missiles or guns. In the 1982 Falklands war, four of seven Argentine Exocet missiles were spoofed off their targets by British countermeasures. In fact there has only been one kinetic kill of an anti ship cruise missile when a British destroyer uses a missile to down an Iraqi Silkworm missile aimed at one of our battleships.
You do realize that the term destroyer is just that... a term. If you did some homework, you'd notice that this class of ship is over 14,500 tons. That's heavier than the so-called cruisers of other navies. That's right... a US destroyer weighs more than a cruiser. In fact, this ship is heavier than the American Ticonderoga-class... and that's a cruiser! I guess the US Navy just got tired of using the term cruiser for ships that could be cruisers.
Exactly. The main reason why this is called a destroyer is due to its guns. Earlier in its development, the DDG-1000 was known as the DD-X, and there was a matching CG-X (cruiser). The cruiser would have used the same hull, but instead of the guns, it would have had more places for missiles. That program was scrapped due to costs.
Never undetstood why we try to protect details on military projects, when the media just ends up facilitating those details to the public and our enemies via the Internet. Migh as well publish other sensitive data such as troop movement, tactics, capabilities among others. Oh wait, the already have in the past.
Some secrets are ment as such for a tactical reasons. Putting budget aside, jeoperdizing our troop's tactical advantage and safety to satisfy curiosity of some is unacceptable.
or.... being able to tell the world that we have cutting edge weapons is the point of having them.
Great. It can avoid radar, but can't avoid sonar and submarines. Awesome misuse of taxpayer money.
I guess if something isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing right.
Just curious what nations submarines you are afraid of.... The Russians are falling apart and the Chinese couldn't field a blue water sub fleet if they had too.
Find out the details of the Zumwalts propulsion. Superconducting liquid cooled (meaning very quiet) electric motors in the hull, energized by gas turbine AC alternator sets mounted in the superstructure to minimize hull penetration and acoustic signature. These will be extremely quiet ships.
Youre no Jesus, Alex
Did we learn nothing from WWII? If it ain't a submarine it's a sitting duck.
....and you, sir, are clueless.
Ah all those arm-chair admirals here. Confusing "stealth" with "invisible." Instead of "damn hard to target in a battle."
I'm quite confident that all US Navy officers and commanders know the definition of the word "stealth".
Not really- not very many modern anti-ship missiles rely entirely on radar, and then stealth technology doesn't give you any advantage at short detection ranges. Stealth merely attenuates the radar return, so it will save the ASM from switching in its front end attenuators until it gets a little closer. This monstrosity has been in the planning stages for over 30 years. Those were the days of frenzied military spending with reckless abandon, the Navy is trying to save face by following through with the program but it is totally out of line with the fiscal reality of today, and the technology it uses, applications concepts, nearly everything about this platform is dated and nearly obsolete.
The Marines want the Navy to build ships with big guns for fire support of the Marines in land combat. Were it not for the Marines I doubt this class of ship would have gone forward as far as it has. Even now, the Marines want more such ships while the Navy has other more urgent priorities.
Thenudge, I wonder if you would call Jesus a sanctimonious turd. A brute swine like you would.
You comparing yourself to Jesus now, Alex? Tell ya what–go convert al Qaeda to peace-loving xtians and then get back to us. Till then, I'll trust the military and the intel community to keep us safe from our enemies instead of you.
Like they kept us safe from the 911 attacks, the majority of them from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan or Iraq? Or the Benghazi embassy attacks? You mean you prefer to be engaged in a perpetual conflict? You're a relic sir. There's no honor in a pointless war where there's nothing to achieve an no one wins. If you know yur history, there are no victors in war only survivors.
REAL stealthy telling the world about it, it's place of harborage, it's incomplete status, it's specifications and payloads, and literally making it a floating skyscraper....50 times harder to spot on radar but approximately 100 times easier to spot with a periscope....and yea people is super great that the construction of some old world sea vessel gave you some cash in your pockets but guess what happens when that budget runs out. Pretty soon our entire economy will run off making wartime goods....oh wait.
Exactly right.
Fiscally responsible, can't feed the people but we sure as hell can kill them.
I thought the US was the fatest country in the world...
We have to protect the hungry from the enemies.
NO! Luke, we must protect the cheeseburger! The cheeseburgers!
it is time we have to start leaking pictures of stealthy looking submarines, ships, tanks, planes, drones on internet and let Chinese, Russians sweat.
Better yet, leak pictures of fake Photoshop stealth submarines. A lot cheaper.
And, that's what the Chinese and Russians do, anyway. They're not stupid.
People from space !! OMG
Has anyone noticed that the Navy has had ships for about 100 years that are more stealthy than this very expensive new toy? They are called submarines, and when submerged they have a smaller radar profile than a glass of water. They are also capable of launching missiles that will reach targets well beyond the 63 miles being touted for the Zumwalt. This is yet another example of the military-industrial complex Ike warned us about. Too bad we're still ignoring him.
Would you send boomers to attack pirate skiffs off Somalia?
Submarines don't carry as many weapons as destroyers, they also serve a different purpose.
Why is it called "stealthy" ? People from space can see it and always know where its going. At least 500 satelites will be tracking its movements. "Stealth" down the drain. What a bummer.
I think your assessment is without merit.
They don't even need that much. Wherever they sail this thing there's going to be intelligence gathering small craft that won't even need $1000 worth of laser radar and GPS to pin point its position within a few feet. Then, when the thing starts launching Tomahawks or the long range round or whatever else, those items are easily detected and tracked from which it is a simple matter of determining the launch point for purposes of counter-attack.
Admiral Ace Lyons hid the big nuclear carrier Eisenhower and it's escorts from detection all the way from Norfolk to just outside the old USSR's territorial limit off Murmansk. He hid the ships from detection in weather system where their satellites and maritime patrol aircraft could not find them. Heavy cloud cover and rain greatly attenuates radar returns. A wiley commander can use weather to his or her advantage to sneak a carrier up to an enemy coast or enemy formation and strike hard. Ships can communicate with signal lights and flags. Aircraft can operate from ships using only light signals. No radios, radars in a receive mode only. Hard but doable, and well practiced. We snuck two carriers into the Sea of Okhotsk without the Sovs realizing it until a mock Alpha strike was launched and showed up on their radars at their territorial limit. Pandamonium on the radios!
When do you plan on leaving the country, Alex? Dont go away mad, just go away.
You first warmonger.
Looks like the one we saw in Pearl Harbor. Most people do not want a war or to see us spend billions on a war budget when we have hunger in our nation and poverty. As a positive a person but some what of a Pollyanna I know we need to be on top as a nation with our military strength . It maybe be a false sense of security but we can not be neutral . We have to stand tall and respect all of our military who sacrifice every day to keep us safe.
Hungry and poor??? This country leads the world in deaths from over eating and it is the only place where people drive to the ghetto.
i bet all the scientists were black.
I bet only a bigot would be checking.
That is not true at all, Miss Demeanor. A few bigots aside, it is the federal government and the university systems ensconced deep within this county that overwhelmingly conduct the do the vast majority or color and race inspections and checking. Just so you know, you know? Lol...
Should have been called the "USS Corruption".
Hahaha- you called it, a stimulus package for Bath.
I don't really understand the whole stealth component since it will be operating with ships without such technology, giving it away. And it sounds like that composite superstructure won't be able to take any punishment. Lastly, less sailors isn't a good thing. Sounds like the zumwalt class is just a bunch of bad ideas
LOL Matt – good point. But that was the idea – all the shells and rounds from enemy ships will just fly through that fiber canopy without exploding. Sailors just have one guy with duct tape to seal the holes so cold air doesn't blow in.
you are both MORONS!! It might not be a bad idea to remember the adage, 'it is better ti be silent and thought a fool than to speak (in this case write) and remove all doubt!'
Or to write (in this case) and exclaim complete ignorance of sea combat. Good try though.
I want one!
People are complaining about defence spending which keeps the west's top military status which directly and indirectly keeps them safe? Ignorant kids
Please explain how this keeps us safe. All the money on this project could have brought us more servicemembers. Not ships from the cold war era.
What is it about this ship that is cold war era?
Yes, we need more servicemen....Start the draft so everyone has their skin in the game!
Don't expect many people to understand the importance of displaying strength and remaining a dominant force. Even our conservatives are liberal.
My, my, what a beautiful color. You'd think they could come up with something a little bit classy... like the Guard Guard has.
It's a war ship not a rescue ship, hence the dull grey vs. bright white and red.
Tisk, tisk... The correct color of a US Navy warship is not, Dull gray, but rather its second cousin, the one that is a little brighter, Haze gray... and is always underway. Shame, shame, shame on you for not knowing this, sir... Lol....
What the hell is the Guard Guard? Are you French?
I am glad to know that my taxes which I generate with very hard work and sacrifice, even though I hate war and with which I would like to alleviate poverty with, goes to build and maintain a boat, which at the end of the day only creates more misery death and disparity. My dear government, thank you for being the vilest mechanism on the face of this earth.
Thank you, Alex. You nailed it good! Yes, the right-wing politicians in Washington are totally unprincipled people who are devoid of any feelings for the average American except to get their vote!
Your simple-mindedness is truly impressive. Thankfully you work very hard in the fast-food industry instead of making realistic decisions in a complex, and often messy world that isn't black and white.
Your supposition that we care about your medieval views are naive. There are some of us that care more about people that are starving than adding one more ship to the most powerful navy in the world. Greg, you and others like you are simply a fossil in a paradigm change. The old guard is simply becoming more irrelevant day by day. To us, an egalitarian society is more important than any ship or weapon used to suppress economic rivalries and to impose our economic interests around the world.
Honestly Alex how much of your taxes do you really pay?... 90% of Americans actually pay little to nothing into taxes and to think your taxes are actually going into this is hilarious.
I pay what the law dictates, nothing less and nothing more. Nevertheless, whatever the amount, no one should bear the burden of paying for something in the future which they cannot pay today. To your claim that no one pays taxes; I think you are referring to income taxes because last time I checked sales taxes are paid by all if not most of Americans.
I suspect you've never done a real hard day's work in your life, Alex. You certainly take for granted the freedom you use to disparage the military–a freedom paid for in blood, thanks to brave Americans who gave their lives so you could write drivel.
There is nothing more basic and retrograde man killing another for land or for the colors on a piece of fabric. If that is what defines you as a human being I will not try to dissuade you, but there are humans among you who have another ideal destination for the human race.
dude seriously shut up. You're making yourself look dumb at this point. Im one of those people that nearly bled to death and died for your freedom to try and oppress someones view for your BS garbaged up ego. My sacrifice is that I no longer get to enjoy my life in any normal capacity so that you can sit in your momma's basement pretending to be someone who means something. I've heard no valid point from you whatsoever. The point he is trying to make is that we should we working towards a better future for all mankind; not simply blowing up the parts of it we disagree with (unless it's a true perversion of humanity). Now in my eyes this vessel was out-dated even before its conception and design. The only seafaring vessel capable of true stealth is a submarine, which this is not, and concordantly a waste of taxpayer money if it's sole purpose was to stealth. Go ahead and rebuttal...but those are just simple facts.
Just because everyone doesn't have an iPhone doesn't mean they are suffering from poverty.
Nobody in this country is starving.... If they were it would be all over the news.
Who says it would be destined to feed us?
the purpose of the navy is not to provide jobs but defend the nation. The zumwalt will not be able to do so. Therefore it is not a good buy for the nation.
More arleigh burke destroyers will.
To all you folks are all complaining about the price of the boat, I live in the town that it is being built in. Bath Iron Works is one of the largest employers in the state of Maine. We NEED these projects. It keeps working people in our state working. I work in a restaurant in the town and we fully depend on the workers from the Iron works to come in. We are always nervous about lay-offs... Keep the jobs coming.
Well said
To be complicit in the deaths that it will be a part of would weigh on me far more than not creating a job.
Move to Switzerland you sanctimonious turd.
Alex, you would prefer that we eliminate the defense complex of this nation? You Sir are touched. I don't want our nation to go to war any more than you do; however, not staying up to date with our military's technology and not maintaining our nations defense is idiotic.
Please…for all our sake…move to a different country. As a former Marine I've been to several that would love to hear your point of view regarding how terrible it is to live in the USA and then promptly cut off your head and post it online. Go to the airport today…hurry up now.
If deployed properly, my naive little Alex, it won't need to fire a shot. Gunboat diplomacy has always been useful.
well said.
I happen to be as granola-crunchy-liberal as they come, but even I am not naive enough not to appreciate the importance of maintaining a strong, up to date military. I deeply appreciate the sacrifices made by every single military family and their service members deserve the very best equipment we can supply.
Also, as James mentioned above, we desperately need these jobs.
I fully appreciate that some intelligent, rational people might disagree with my sentiment and I'm okay with that. Agreeing to disagree is an integral part of our nation's diversity and strength. On the other hand, I have no time or energy to spend on uninformed trolls who just lob insults and unfounded junk to hear themselves talk.
I simply admire thenuge having said what I would wish to say but never would have said.
And that is why we will loose our next war. It isn't your fault. It is because we try to keep the military industrial complex alive with cold war projects. It is not praticle. Our next war will begin with high speed technology, but will end in a trench. Hopefully, that trench line isn't in California.
And don't we even more keep the Medical-Industrial complex humming along with all the federal spending? IT Must all stop and be accounting for. The end is near and lean & mean will be the only way on ALL programs. Send issues like Social security, welfare, abortion, education, EPA and many other to the states in a responsible transfer over a decade or so!
Get this nation back to lean and MEAN!
It appears James, that you are thinking only of yourself and your greedy townspeople. Don't you care about what these monster machines do? Evidently not as long as you and your fellow townspeople can make a profit out of this ignominy! This is disgusting!
Being capable of defending our nation is one of the most patriotic things we as Americans can do. I care what these "monster machines" can do, and it damn well better be able to keep me and my family safe. By the way, on behalf of all the veterans, you are welcome for insuring you and yours are kept safe and free to display your stupidity.
I agree Jack, James and others like him have been conditioned to say, act and speak without any sense of critical thinking about what is happening around them. They seem to believe that this country is the best thing since the invention of the wheel. Frankly, the only choice we have as a people is to wait until they dwindle into oblivion and their thoughts about the world with them. These are the same bunglers that think the debt ceiling is something that's really being negotiated.
That is part of the issue with the military-related funding. Your point is well taken, but we are in a situation where reducing the military funding is imperative, but the politicians fight it so because doing so would kill jobs in their districts which are so dependant on the military-industrial complex. So we keep spending on the military because so many jobs depend on it, not necessarily because it is the best use of the money.


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WordPress 3.0 on the Horizon – Submit Your Videos!
This past Thursday, WordPress turned seven, an impressive feat and an awesome reminder of just how much this community has grown since WordPress first arrived. Later that same day, the first release candidate release of WordPress 3.0 was delivered to the world, complete with lots of updates, fixes, and yes, new features.
WordPress 3.0 brings some changes. Multisite installations of WordPress now come from the same download, a handful of alterations have been made behind the scenes, and a brand new interface for creating navigation menus is coming.
With these updates in mind, we're bringing you a pair of videos today from the most recent WordPress NYC Meetup, which was titled "WordPress 3.0: What You Need to Know." The first video is a presentation by Steve Bruner on some of the new methods of customizing WordPress in 3.0, including custom post types and menu management, and the second is from Boone Gorges, demonstrating the new built-in multi-site ability.
WordPress 3.0 is just around the corner, and this is a perfect opportunity to create and submit a tutorial for publication on WordPress.tv! WordPress users will be looking for help with these new features. You might be the teacher they need to advance their knowledge of their favorite publishing platform. Have you been working with the beta versions of WordPress 3.0? Are you a developer, designer, or power user? We feature great tutorials from WordPress users around the world on WordPress.tv, and you too can be a WordPress.tv Producer.
If you've created a video tutorial that you'd like to see published on WordPress.tv, please drop us an email and let us know what you've made. We'll be happy to take a look at it and follow up with you for more information.
And share the word! If you see a tutorial on WordPress.tv that you think would be useful for your friends or blog readers, feel free to grab the embed code from the video and embed the video on your own blog!

subset: commoncrawl


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In May of 1995, the year after I began writing this column, a monsoon rain overtook a German film crew in a big white car driving back to the city on Interstate 10. We were returning from Boutte and an interview with Sherman Washington. Washington is gone now though his gravelly baritone lives on with the Zion Harmonizers' recordings, and superb version of "Jesus on the Mainline" included on Deacon John's Jump Blues.
The sky that day was ink black; the worried cameraman guiding the white Lincoln rent-a-car was muttering in German about water rising on South Claiborne Avenue. I was finishing a week's field producer gig, cash in pocket, when they let me off in knee-deep water at Jefferson Avenue. The driver feared making the turn. I didn't blame him as I sloshed two blocks to my then-home.
What stands happier in my memory bank was a service the week before at Israelite Divine Universal Spiritual Church on Frenchman Street in Gentilly. The producer had just arrived from Frankfort and was suffering severe jet lag. I had a head cold but the music that night was pure magic: a caravan of gospel singers come to eulogize Bishop Herman Brown, an impresario and ally of Sherman Washington as the latter oversaw scheduling at the Gospel Tent.
With groups like the Boutté Family Gospel (Hello, Lillian!), the Wimberly Family Gospel Singers, the City of Love Music and Worship and Arts Choir, plus Craig Adams & Higher Dimensions of Praise lined up for the festival's first weekend this year in the tent of church song, we do well to remember those who helped put gospel in the mainstream.
The German producer was nodding off as the hosannas rang for Bishop Brown, who had booked many gospel artists for concerts, broadening the idea of church song as something people would turn out to hear in a big hall or for public brunch somewhere. I had never heard of the guy. As his life in music passed before me I saw Quint Davis, executive producer of the Jazz & Heritage Festival, wearing a coat and tie in a pew near the front – Quint, in a tie. Meaning Bishop Herman Brown was a serious man.
The German producer was making noises about his need for sleep and I was making excuses to stay when Reverend Alvin Bridges marched across the altar followed by the Desire Community Choir in flowing robes and a dazzling, zigzag pattern of body rhythms. Bridges made a turn in front of the coffin, leaned over and somehow touched the deceased. At that, all the preachers popped up and surrounded him for a supreme breach of protocol at which Reverend Bridges backed off, or up, obtaining the microphone, announcing that his Desire choir came from the Lower Nine, a place people looked down on, but they were here to sing for Jesus. I paraphrase, yes, but Bridges was setting people up to realize that even from the Lower Nine, the spirit shall rise.
"We … must … go," wheezed the producer.
"Not yet," I said, ingesting two cough drops. "You need to see this."
It was a lie. I confess it now, 19 years later. The guy needed to crash, I could see that, but I was young and selfish. It was the most spectacular evening of gospel music I had seen to that point and I wanted to stay.
Then came Ruby Ray and the Spiritualettes, a choir in color-coordinated royal blue and a young man, perhaps 19, given the lead vocal for "Jesus on the Mainline." They were swaying back and forth like tropical palms on a wind-battered island, singing to the skies, a work of pure beauty with a trailing comic touch as Ray flicked her hand at him, like some smiling, jibing schoolmarm, saying, "Sing, boy – sing!" He kept singing and jumping, she kept flicking and saying, "Sing, boy!"
An aura of darkness folded across the face of my German employer and it registered on me that if the guy passed out or had a heart attack I would not only lose a week's prime wages but also have to get him to a hospital. And so we left. I got him back to the hotel where the crew arrived the following day.
I have no idea what happened to the boy who sang with the Spiritualettes; perhaps he's a man and still with them. They are performing Sun., April 27, in the Gospel Tent.
From the festival website: "The New Orleans Spiritualettes were formed in 1956, in the midst of a New Orleans gospel movement that eventually produced a dozen or more musical ensembles. Founded by Mississippi transplant Ruby Ray, who remains the group's leader, The New Orleans Spiritualettes have continued to rely since that time on strong rhythms and heart-felt harmonies that recall a backwoods choir as much as a more-refined, city-based ensemble."
Heading home that night from the church, a week before the aforementioned flood, I was trailed by a regret that I didn't stay the night to see the full show of gospel talent and the fervor with which they sang. To this day that evening remains the stand-out gospel experience of my life.
Correction: The February column on black Carnival praised Robert McKinney, a pivotal contributor to the Louisiana Writer's Project, for his unsung role in the book Gumbo Ya-Ya. Kim Marie Vaz, author of "The Baby Dolls," sent a response: "Robert McKinney graduated from Xavier University in 1933. He was not a Dillard graduate. Also, he did not work on Dillard's Negro unit of the Louisiana Writer's Project. He worked with the 'integrated' group with Hazel Breaux, Caroline Durieux and others." Thank you, Ms. Vaz. We regret the error.


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By: T F Stern
T F Stern's Rantings
Last week Enfamil pulled all their products off the shelves coast to coast out of an abundance of caution after four babies died from Cronobacter bacteria; it MUST have been in the baby formula and the news media ran with the story. The FDA later made the statement, "the bacteria that are found naturally in the environment and in plants such as wheat and rice."
"The FDA tested factory sealed containers of powdered infant formula and nursery water with the same lot numbers as the opened containers collected from Missouri and no Cronobacter bacteria were found."
No harm, better to be safe than sorry and besides, Enfamil has made a fortune selling products to the pubic. It's their duty to absorb such losses.
The latest victim in the "let's scare the public half to death" and pull all their products out of grocery stores is lettuce. California pulled all Arizona Lettuce off the shelves because a field NEXT to a place that grows lettuce, tested positive for salmonella.
"None of the lettuce in the markets has tested positive for salmonella but the grower alerted retailers of the test results and sought a withdrawal of the product "out of an abundance of caution."'
I think this all has something to do with Islamic terrorist networks trying to recruit illegal Mexican labor and George Soros' desire to be World Emperor. If you've noticed, all these products require either paper or plastic bags to transport home; could be a Green Movement uprising, never can be too sure about folks who watch Whale Wars on television.
"Out of an abundance of caution," if translated into terms we all understand means, "Our society has become so litigious that if we don't do something drastic to show the world we did everything humanly possible, then we'll be seen as heartless greedy capitalists who don't care what happens, so we'd rather go bankrupt and throw perfectly good inventory down the toilet and minimize our losses if and when this ever goes to court."
There may be a sinister plot to destroy American consumer goods one crisis after another until we all start eating Soylent Green, the daily nourishment bar made from our "dearly departed." Is the purpose of collapsing the free market so we can usher in some form of state issued product like Soylent Green to take the place of dangerous privately produced or manufactured goods? Never let it be said the government hasn't shown an abundance of caution; it's taken years to destroy our free market system one brick at a time.
This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, "Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government & The American Constitution."


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Huysum, Jan van
Huysum, Jan van yän vän hoi´so͝om [key], 1682–1749, Dutch painter of still life and landscapes. His father was Justus van Huysum (1659–1716), a successful landscape and genre painter of Amsterdam. Although he painted landscapes in a classical style, Jan is best known for his flower and fruit still lifes in oil and in watercolor. These are distinguished for their brilliant light and shade effects, delicacy of coloring, and exquisite finish. They are to be found in most of the leading European museums, notably in the Louvre and the museums of Amsterdam and Vienna.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies


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The "Play Tebow" billboard is now up on I-25 and 58th Avenue in Denver, and it is comically simple. It is a digital thing, which is fancy, but otherwise it appears to have been devised by a middle school yearbook committee.
The guilty party, though, is actually Mohammad Suleiman, the owner of a store in Denver and of the site OneSwoosh.com, which we will not link to here because we refuse to be his tool, goddammit. Denver's KDVR spoke to Suleiman after the sign lit up yesterday:
The sign is the brainchild of Mohammad Suleiman, who works in a merchandise store in north Denver. He says he was fed up with Orton's ineffectiveness near the goal line and decided to use his store's electronic billboard to push for a switch to Tebow.
"It's still early in the season to be frustrated, but I mean fans are asking for Tebow. Why not give us a little dose of him?" Suleiman says. "If we can be heard, if we can reach the Broncos staff and make some change, that would be great."
Far as we can tell, Suleiman opted for three separate screens: "BRONCO FANS TO JOHN FOX: PLAY TEBOW!!;" "Fox: Welcome to TEBOW-LAND;" and one with an image of The Messiah in his Bronco jersey, which is, one would think, almost certainly illegal. Suleiman's brother, Tariq, told Fox that if the billboard convinces Fox to start Tebow, then Mohammad is "a genius."
Sure: A genius who uses multiple exclamation marks and caps-lock for emphasis and who may have just subjected himself to a copyright infringement case. Let's hope Kyle Orton eggs this thing.
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Out of Africa, and now back in
According to this article in The Guardian yesterday, a new book has been published to help Africans understand the Bible.
Called the "Africa Bible Commentary," the 1,600-pager, "provides explanations of verses from all 66 books of the Bible, using local proverbs and idioms to make reading relevant to African eyes while remaining true to the scriptures. More than a decade in the making, the book has been put together by 70 scholars and theologians from 25 countries, and represents a range of Protestant churches."
The book is not without its controversial material, mostly found in essays that address contemporary issues such as HIV/AIDS, female genital mutilation, refugees, ethnic conflict, even witchcraft.
I find all this fascinating for many reason, but am especially intrigued by the continent's long history of unawareness, given that so many of the stories in the Bible take place on the continent itself.
After the jump, I've included some interesting factoids about the Bible, besides it being the best-selling book of all time"¦
The Bible, the world's best-selling book, is also the world's most shoplifted book. About 50 Bibles are sold every minute. Job is the oldest book written in the Bible - it was written by an unknown Israelite around 1500 BC.
Malachi, written about 400 BC, is the youngest book in the Old Testament. James, written around 45 AD, is the oldest book in the New Testament. Revelation, written about 95 AD, is the youngest book in the New Testament. The word "Lord" appears 1855 times in the Bible. The word "God" appears in every book except Esther and Song of Solomon. The word "grandmother" appears in the Bible only once: 2 Timothy 1:5. Almonds and pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the Bible. The last word in the Bible is AMEN.
(Facts courtesy of Did You Know?)


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The purpose of this open invitation to tender is to conclude a framework contract with a Service Provider for ICT Network Support Services. The services will be acquired in the form of person-days, categorised in different profiles. A detailed description of the services and profiles required can be found in Chapter 2 below (Technical Specifications).
This call has been published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union 2014/S 049-080630 of 11/03/2014.
Deadline of submitting tenders: 15/05/2014 (17h00 for hand-delivered tenders).
Requests for additional information/clarification should be received by 05/05/2014. The answers to such requests, if any, will be published under this banner, therefore please visit Cedefop's website frequently for updates.
If you are downloading these documents from our website, kindly send us an e-mail (email@example.com) notifying us.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'COBie' tag.
Your Miele story caught my attention… My 15-year-old Miele dishwasher (which I loved) was failing to wash dishes, and I…
PLM is changing and affects us all
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'COBie' tag.
This year I had several discussions with persons working for construction companies. They shared their BIM dreams and tried to explain them the PLM benefits and basics as they are much alike. The challenge in these discussions was that each of us comes from a complete different background. The word PLM does not resonate well outside product-centric companies. In project-centric companies, people tend to focus more on the tools they are using, instead of the overall business process. Construction companies and EPC companies in Oil & Gas always had a project-centric approach, and for them every project is unique.
AECbytes.com published in 2004 the chart below, demonstrating the construction industry is lagging behind in productivity compared to other industries.
You find a link to the full article here.
It is an old graph, and I haven't seen a more recent one. However, I guess the trend has not changed significantly. What has changed is that construction companies are now talking about BIM. BIM meaning Building Information Model, a term which has a history with Autodesk. Read the wiki news about BIM. There are many interpretations of BIM. One of the formal definitions is:
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition.
This is a high-level definition, and BIM is characterized as a shared knowledge resource. Is it a 3D Digital model ? Is it a kind of DMU (Digital Mock-Up) ? Is it a Building Lifecycle environment ? There is the word "life-cycle" in the definition.
I noticed many vendors and consultants in this industry talk about what is BIM. It is rare to find quantified values for implementing BIM. You find exactly the same values as PLM brings to manufacturing companies. Better decisions, managing complex constructions and projects, early decisions that save costs later, etc.
Governments have been pushing BIM to the construction industry (both for the civil and building industry) as they believe this is a way to improve quality and better manage time and costs. And as they are usually the big spenders, the leading construction firms have to adapt to these standards to get these contracts.
Would any construction company begin with BIM without being pushed?
In product-centric companies, the global competition and the consumer are driving the need for PLM. Margins are under pressure, and they need to be competitive to stay in business. The construction industry is not (yet) that much driven by global influence and the choice of consumers.
The chart below illustrates the BIM ambition in the UK. At this time, companies are entering level 2, and they struggle to understand what is the impact for them to be at BIM Level 2. I am sure other countries have their own and similar roadmap.
The diagram illustrates the same path which other industries have been going through in the past twenty years.
BIM level 0 is focused on managing CAD, in the other industries this was the time that single disciplines managed their own CAD data. There was no sharing at that time.
Level 1 is focusing on managing 2D and 3D CAD together much similar to what in other industries is done with a PDM system. The PDM system manages in one environment the 2D and 3D data. This is still as a departmental solution but could provide in one environment information from different disciplines. Here, you find all suppliers from 3D CAD systems having their PDM solution, not focusing on a core 3D Model
Level 2 is about sharing 3D BIM models for different disciplines to support 4D (construction planning based on 3D) and 5D (construction planning based on 3D planning and costing integrated). This is what in other industries, primarily automotive and aerospace, was considered as the early days of DMU (Digital Mock Up) and PLM. Dassault Systemes and Siemens are leading here and historically CATIA has been the base for the 3D Model.
BIM Level 3 is what can be found currently in the asset centric industries (Energy, Nuclear, Oil & Gas) where working from a virtual plant model all disciplines are connected through the whole lifecycle. This is the domain that I have been advocating in previous posts, promoting PLM concepts and capabilities.
For example read: PLM for Asset Lifecycle Management.
Apparently the construction industry is still in the early phases of BIM Level 3. I would compare it to teenage sex; they all talk about it, but nobody does it. Or Hollywood BIM as Antonio Ruivo Meireles calls it in his AECbytes article: "Say "NO!" to Hollywood BIM".
Antonio talks about the BIM implementation at Mota-Engill. Briefly touching a common topic for PLM implementations: "People and Cultural Change". However, most of the implementation report was focused on tools, where even Excel and Visual Basic play a role.
And this is the point where construction companies could learn from other industries. They have discovered (or are still discovering) that Excel and Visual Basic are like soft drugs. They take away the pain, but they do not provide the solution in the long term. Instead of that, legacy Excels start piling up in directories, and the Visual Basic code becomes the domain of an enthusiastic expert (till this expert moves to another company or retires). The risk is ending up with a legacy environment so hard to change that a costly revolution is needed at a certain moment.
Construction companies are still investing in selecting a set of tools/applications, each with their own proprietary data and format. And they use customizations or standardized information carriers, like the COBie spreadsheets, to exchange information between partners and disciplines. This is already a giant step forward, as COBie forces companies to focus on mandatory and standard content, required at specific stages of the lifecycle instead of searching for it when it is actually needed.
Somehow the COBie approach is similar to the early days of PLM, where companies forced their disciplines to save information in the PLM system (as it became imperative). In these departments and disciplines the work and interaction did not change so much as before they had the PLM system. The cultural change here was that designers and engineers had to enter more data upfront for higher quality downstream.
An intermediate conclusion might be that construction companies follow the same direction as early PLM. Standardizing the data (model) to have a common understanding between stakeholders. Construction companies might not want to implement a PLM system as ownership of data is unclear as compared to manufacturing companies every discipline or department in PLM might be another company in the construction industry.
The movie below from Airbus describes the current way of working in a multidisciplinary, multi-partner, multi-location online system. Airbus calls it their DMU. Please before continuing reading look at this movie as the concept is crucial
I want to highlight two statements in this movie.
Russ Brigham @ 5:39 talking about suppliers not participating to the DMU:
"They will be making decisions on out of date data or even incorrect data"
And @ 7:11
"DMU is a mind-set ……."
I am aware that the aerospace industry is not directly comparable to the construction industry, there are commonalities from which the construction industry can learn:
For the construction industry, the current difficulty might be that none of the parties involved wants to invest in owning the data. For Airbus, it is clear. As the manufacturer of the airplane, they remain responsible for the information throughout the whole lifecycle.
For a construction, this might be different. The owner might be totally disconnected from the construction and the operations, therefore, not willing to promote or invest in the DMU approach.
However, the owner should realize that it is not about ownership but about facilitating on-line collaboration around a construction from the initial concept phase till maintenance and even decommissioning, connecting all the stakeholders. The benefits better decisions at each stage of the lifecycle leading to lower failure costs and waste in materials, resources and time. The construction industry still accepts too high failure rates compared to the manufacturing industry. And as at the end the owner/operator spends most of these costs, they should be interested in this approach.
Major construction companies responsible for the project execution and control might want to invest in a PLM platform, allowing them to execute projects better, learn from other connected projects and create a solid base for maintenance contracts
My dream and wish for 2014 for the construction industry: Focus on the next step of integrating data on a PLM backbone instead of standardizing interfaces between applications. It is the future mind-set proven in other industries.