Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 3:55:56-3:57:48

Turning Zumwalt into an air-warfare cruiser

A production Zumwalt air-defence variant could combine its peripheral Mark 57 cells with a large central Mark 41 battery, but three completed hulls cannot replace the Ticonderoga force.

Air WarfareMark 57 VLSTiconderoga Class CruisersVertical Launch SystemsZumwalt Class Destroyers
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Question

Could the Zumwalt class have become an air-warfare cruiser replacement for the Ticonderogas?

Short answer

A later production variant could have done so with more VLS cells, but the three completed ships are far too few to fill the fleet-wide gap.

Notes

The existing class is too small in number to fill the cruiser gap by conversion alone. During production, however, later ships could have exchanged one Advanced Gun System for a large block of Mark 41 cells. Combined with the eighty peripheral Mark 57 cells, that would create ample missile capacity for an air-warfare role. The proposal works as a cancelled follow-on batch, not as a claim that the three surviving ships can solve fleet-wide escort shortages.