Watch US Navy stealth destroyer Zumwalt fire off missile for first time
- The USS Zumwalt launched a SM-2 missile, testing the ship’s ability to defend itself against cruise missiles
- The warship was commissioned four years ago, but its combat system hasn’t worked until earlier this year
The Zumwalt, a first-in-class stealth destroyer, test-fired a SM-2 missile from the ship's launcher last Tuesday at the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range in Point Mugu, California.
The Zumwalt was commissioned in 2016, but it was not delivered to the US Navy with a functional combat system until earlier this year.
While the Zumwalt programme has faced a number of significant setbacks, including cost overruns and major delays, a big issue was the ship's main guns – the two 155mm guns of the Advanced Gun System.
When the US Navy reduced its order from roughly 30 ships to just three, the cost of the rounds shot up. A single round of the Long-Range Land Attack Projectile was going to cost almost US$1 million – a figure closer to guided missiles than artillery shells.
And that wasn't the only problem with the guns. Vice Admiral William Merz, then the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems, told Congress in 2018 that the guns also lacked the desired range. “We just cannot get the thing to fly as far as we want," he said, adding that the US Navy was considering getting rid of the guns altogether.