The U.S. Navy is ready to take charge of the largest, most tech-savvy, sophisticated destroyer, USS Zumwalt, which is currently in Bath, Maine.
The destroyer’s angles makes it 50 times more difficult to detect on radar, and its guns are designed to hit targets 100 miles away. The ship is powered by electricity produced by turbines like those in a Boeing 777. The vessel’s advanced automation will allow the ship to run with a much smaller crew than current destroyers.
The 610-foot vessel is the new first class of warship built at Bath Iron Works since the Arleigh Burke in 1989, and it comes it with a big price tag—a final cost of $4.4 billion.
“We’ve overcome lots of obstacles to get to this point,” said electrician John Upham, of Litchfield, according to AP.
“I think everybody in the shipyard is proud of the work we’ve done,” he added.
The idea for the land attack destroyer was floated more than 15 years ago and then underwent some arrangements. The final design requested a warship with a stealthy shape and advanced gun system that can fire rocket-propelled projectiles with pinpoint precision.
