The u.s navy's new zumwalt stealth
destroyer put to rest any doubts about
its capabilities by passing an intense
round of sea trials in which it sailed
through two storms off the states of California and Alaska.
According to the naval sea systems
command the destroyer was able to stave
off mammoth waves that were 20 feet high
which gave the military officials more
confidence in its ability to complete
real-world missions in heavy and rough
seas. Zumwalt previously took part in
calm water trials off the coast of San Diego. But the engineers decided to move
more north in an effort to have the
destroyer experience more extreme
weather conditions.
Stephen Minage the director of the rough water trials said in a statement, we chose locations and times to conduct
the testing that would correspond with
what forecast models were indicating
would provide the wave conditions
required to complete our test matrix. We deployed wave buoys that drifted on
the sea surface which helped us to
quantify the seaway in terms of the wave
height, period and direction.
He added, We were completely at the mercy of
mother nature during the testing but
those devices were critically important
to the characterization of what we were
seeing in terms of ship motion and
structural response and for the
situational awareness they provided to
support safe execution of the testing. Minich and his team were encouraged by
the results of the rough water trials
noting that there were no exceedances of
critical motion criteria limits.
The
navy's official news release added
to further test Zumwalt a scale model
replica of the destroyer will repeat
similar conditions in what has been
called the u.s navy's indoor ocean, a
bethesda maryland-based giant pool that
can hold more than 12 million gallons of
water and replicate real-world wave
patterns. The officials noted that the trials will
help the navy troubleshoot any
differences between our model scale
predictions and our full-scale
observations.
Both the rough water trials and the calm
water trials are part of a standard
performance and special trials program
that the navy conducts on the lead ship
of every new class. The recent trials were particularly
important for Zumwalt because of its
hull design which has raised some
concern about its ability to overcome
rougher waters.
All told i'd rather be on that ship than
any other ship i've been on, Navy Captain Andrew Carlson the destroyer's
commanding officer told defense news in
january, you definitely have to get used to the
role which is very short compared to
other ships. For those of us who have been on Ticonderoga class cruisers especially up
top you kind of lean over 15 degrees and
you wonder if you are going to come back. We didn't experience any of that, as long
as you get used to the finer oscillation, it really handles very well, he said.
