Zumwalt-Class Destroyer

The Zumwalt class is a class of American guided-missile destroyers, the lead ship USS Zumwalt commissioned in 2016 and named for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, built around a distinctive wave-piercing tumblehome hull shape, in which the hull slopes inward above the waterline rather than outward, intended together with extensive angular surfaces and hidden equipment to give the roughly six-hundred-foot ship a radar cross-section deliberately made to resemble a much smaller vessel. Originally planned as a large class intended to provide long-range naval gunfire support for operations near shore, the program's advanced 155mm Advanced Gun System was left without an affordable guided shell to fire after its intended ammunition became too expensive to procure in quantity, and the class was ultimately curtailed to just three ships, a scale far smaller than originally envisioned. Despite the reduced production run, the Zumwalt class introduced technologies including its stealth-oriented hull form, an integrated electric propulsion system and extensive automation intended to reduce crew size, features the United States Navy has studied for potential use in future ship designs.