The US Navy has postponed the christening of the first Zumwalt-class multi-mission vessel (DDG-1000), future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) until a future date, due to the US govenmental shutdown.
The US Navy secretary Ray Mabus said it is incredibly unfortunate that navy is being forced to cancel the christening ceremony for this great warship.
The ship will be named to honour the navy admiral Elmo R Bud Zumwalt, who became the 19th Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 1970, and passed away on 2 January 2000.
"The ongoing government shutdown prevents us from being able to honour Admiral Zumwalt’s memory with a ceremony befitting his and his family’s legacy of service to our nation and our navy," Mabus said.
The Zumwalt-class next-generation, guided-missile naval ship has been designed to provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces, and an integral part of joint and combined expeditionary crew.
Capable of accommodating a crew of 149, the 610-long ship has a displacement capacity of 15,620t and can support operations of two MH-60R aircraft or one MH-60R aircraft and one VTUAS.
The DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class ship will provide offensive, distributed and precision firing capabilities for forces onshore.
In addition to providing independent forward presence and deterrence for carrying out operations in the littorals, the multi-mission DDG 1000 will be the first US Navy surface combatant to use electric power for propulsion and combat technology.
The second and third ships of the class, the future USS Michael Monsoor and the future USS Lyndon B Johnson are scheduled to be delivered to the navy in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
The navy, the Zumwalt family and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works are currently discussing to reschedule the christening ceremony.
Image: US Navy’s future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) destroyer deckhouse. Photo: courtesy of US Navy.
