I just read an interesting article from 19fortyfive, an outlet focused on military issues, about the rebuild to the Zumwalt class destroyer and I just gotta say, the Zumwalt graft just never ends. I wrote about bias and stupidity in government costing billions and mentioned the Zumwalt in another post but the new, to me, information makes we want to devote an entire article to the situation.
The Zumwalt graft has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and has added minimal value to our military might. Ready to dive in?
The Original Zumwalt Graft
The Zumwalt class destroyer has a history that aligns pretty well with almost every advanced warfare project the United States builds nowadays. It’s all hope and dreams, lacks practicality and, to some degree, sanity.
Military leaders and the politicians who funded the Zumwalt envisioned a multi-mission stealth ship focused on land attacks with a revolutionary gun called the VGAS, vertical gun for advanced ships. The gun never worked. It was just wishful thinking. We, the taxpayers, spent about $24.5 billion on development of what was supposed to be thirty-two ships but ended up being three. Those three do not have a weapon capable of carrying out their primary mission. At the time, it was described as a ship without a mission, inferior to the older Arleigh-Burke destroyers.
Not satisfied with wasting $24.5 billion dollars, our politicians and military commanders decided it was best to throw more money at the problem.
The New Zumwalt Graft
So, we’ve got a ship without a gun, that cannot accomplish its mission, that is surpassed by other, older ships, what should we do? I’ve got, we’ve got this Hypersonic Missile thingy, let’s completely refit the Zumwalt so it can carry those!
Off we go to spend another $9 billion to make them capable of carrying a missile we can’t even deploy because it’s not finished. That missile, by the way, is one of the most expensive rounds ever developed. In addition, the Zumwalt can carry far fewer of the new missiles than other ships, only twelve per vessel, ten times less than the Ticonderoga Class cruiser. Not to mention there are only three of the Zumwalts.
The Good News
The Zumwalt is fast, its stealthy, and it’s quite stable in rough seas. That’s great but it doesn’t make up for the enormous amount of money we’ve spent on it and its shocking lack of capabilities.
Conclusion
When it comes to graft for defense companies, the government has endless pockets. When it comes to housing our soldiers, feeding them, taking care of their medical needs, the money dries right up.
Our defense industry has an enormous procurement problem, but as long as the big dawgs keep feeding at the trough of taxpayers, it isn’t going to stop.
Tom Liberman