Indeed, I got my start as a columnist in 2000 precisely because reporters took to labeling the destroyer USS Cole a battleship. It’s all too common among laymen to use battleship as a generic term for any ship of war. First of all, there’s the matter of linguistic hygiene. If stealth is an accurate adjective, though, dubbing Zumwalt a battleship conveys false impressions. While hardly invisible to the naked eye, this big ship will prove hard to detect-let alone track or target-while cruising over the horizon. That accounts for the vessel’s clean, otherworldly look.įor another, radar-absorbent coatings slathered on the ship’s external surfaces muffle such radar returns as do occur. And while radar antennae, smokestacks, and other fittings clutter the decks of conventional warships, such items are mostly concealed within Zumwalt’s hull or deckhouse. Accordingly, the DDG-1000 design includes few right angles. Right angles and surfaces perpendicular to the axis of EM radiation bounce back energy-boosting an object’s radar signature. How did shipwrights pull this off? For one thing, the geometry of the DDG-1000’s hull, superstructure, and armaments deflects rather than reflects electromagnetic energy. Blending into surface traffic is no mean feat for an outsized destroyer. While not entirely undetectable, DDG-1000 will look like a fishing vessel or other small craft on enemy radar scopes-if it’s picked up at all. This 15,000-ton behemoth displaces half-again as much as a Ticonderoga -class cruiser yet reportedly has just one-fiftieth the radar cross-section of the fleet’s workhorse Arleigh Burke -class DDGs.
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