In 2016, when the U.S. Navy commissioned the Zumwalt-class destroyer (DDG-1000), it praised the ship as the most advanced surface combatant in the world. Equipped with state-of-the-art stealth design, revolutionary electric propulsion and integrated power mechanisms, and dual advanced gun systems, the 16,000-ton Zumwalt is billed as larger, more advanced and harder to detect than any destroyer in the world.
However, several shortcomings, including runaway costs and poor performance, led the Navy to reduce the number of orders from the proposed 32 ships to three, raising doubts about the Navy’s ability to deliver advanced warships. Ultimately, the Zumwalt encountered two major problems. The first is its incredible cost, as the $8 billion price tag per ship makes it unsuitable for large-scale manufacturing and deployment. Second, its advanced design is less suitable for the Navy’s use as a land support ship, where stealth capabilities are less important. As a result, U.S. leadership views the Zumwalt as an expensive square peg in the Navy’s coastal support round hole, leaving it a floating cash pit with no clear mission.
This disconnect has prompted the U.S. Navy to embark on the daunting task of updating its most expensive destroyers, replacing the 155mm guns with hypersonic missiles. The first ship of its kind to be equipped with an ICBM system, the Zumwalt is one of many global destroyers adding high-tech weapons systems to counter the evolving threat landscape. The update repositions the Zumwalt as part of U.S. long-range strike operations, an increasingly important strategic priority perhaps best exemplified by the November 2025 nuclear missile test. After completing a round of post-modernization sea trials in January 2026, the sci-fi stealth ship may finally be ready to take its place in U.S. naval strategy.
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America’s most advanced destroyer
Two sailors walk past a DDG-1000 Zumwalt docked at a dock. – Mark Wilson/Getty Images
When the DDG-1000 entered service, it was praised for its novel stealth design. Although the 610-foot-long Zumwalt has about a 40 percent increase in radar cross-section compared to its Arleigh Burke-class predecessors, its radar cross-section is comparable to that of a 50-foot-long fishing boat. The Zumwalt employs many of the same stealth design principles as fighter jets, eschewing typical design structures in favor of an angled, wave-piercing tumble hull and a deckhouse made of electromagnetic wave-absorbing composites to lower the ship’s radar footprint.
Coupled with acoustics that are closer to those of a submarine, the Zumwalt is approximately 50 times more stealthy than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Another major development is the Zumwalt’s electric propulsion system. It is powered by a revolutionary integrated power network capable of generating 78 megawatts of electricity, almost as much as a nuclear aircraft carrier.
The Zumwalt’s massive size, which allows the Zumwalt to accommodate a variety of aircraft, including Joint Strike Fighters, drones and MV-22 Ospreys, was initially considered a boon for its ability to operate alongside amphibious and littoral combat ships. To support these inshore operations, the ship is equipped with two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems (AGS). The AGS’s long-range land attack projectile has a range of 62 nautical miles and is designed to fill the Navy’s surface fire support gap left by the retirement of the Iowa-class battleships in 1992.
Doom, gloom and hope
A side view shows the angular hull of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt while sailing in open water. -Handout/Getty Images
Unfortunately, the technological advancements in the Navy’s sci-fi stealth ships come at a price. After 11 years of development, the cost had soared to $23 billion. To put this astronomical figure into perspective, the U.S. Navy’s new nuclear supercarriers, the Gerald R. Ford -class, cost $13 billion. For Zumwalt, the ammunition alone was a financial disaster, as each round cost more than $800,000, forcing the purchase to be reduced from 20,000 units to 2,400 units.
Complicating matters further, the Zumwalt’s expensive stealth improvements are not suited to the Navy’s planned nearshore use, where congested waterways and clear lines of sight render most of its anti-radar capabilities ineffective. Between rising costs and competing design priorities, Navy planners have largely viewed the Zumwalt-class destroyers as an expensive ship with no mission. Since canceling the ammunition order, however, the Navy has begun shifting the Zumwalt away from littoral operations and toward covert operations and long-range missile strikes.
This repurposing begins in August 2023, when DDG-1000 undergoes a 3-year modernization effort. Part of this involves replacing the advanced artillery system with a state-of-the-art Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) weapon system carrying a common hypersonic glide body capable of global ranges at speeds up to Mach 5. Through these efforts, the Navy hopes the CPS system will transform the Zumwalt-class destroyers into key cogs in global power projection efforts, particularly in the Pacific theater.
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