--- title: "The Navy’s new $7.8 billion stealth destroyer is now delayed for a sixth year, surprising no one" description: "The first of of the Navy's new Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers won't hit full combat capability until April 2020, six years after the controversial $7.8 billion warship's original expected delivery date of July 2014 and more than a decade after full-rate production first began" date: "2019-10-10" modified: "2019-10-10" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/uss-zumwalt-destroyer-delayed-again/" categories: - "Destroyers" - "Military Branches" - "Navy" - "News" - "Ships" - "Stealth" - "Tactics" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # The Navy’s new $7.8 billion stealth destroyer is now delayed for a sixth year, surprising no one ![]() The USS Zumwalt will "the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world," [according]() to the Navy — if it ever ends up seeing action. The first of of the Navy's trio of new Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) stealth destroyers won't hit full combat capability until April 2020, Bloomberg's Anthony Capaccio [reports](), six years after the controversial $7.8 billion warship's [original expected delivery date]() of July 2014 and more than a decade after full-rate production first began. "While combat system testing has made significant progress, Zumwalt continues to work through first-in-class integration and shipboard test challenges," Navy spokeswoman Coleen O'Rourke [confirmed]() to Bloomberg. The fresh delay comes as lawmakers consider the Navy's request for additional $163.3 million to complete three Zumwalt-class vessels as part of the service's fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, according to a September 2019 Congressional Research Service [report]() on the program, up 1.3 percent from the additional $150.2 million the service requested in its fiscal 2019 request. In the six years since construction on the Zumwalt began, the Navy has requested an additional $1.5 billion to complete the three hulls, [according]() to the CRS [report](), growing the overall cost of the program by 47 percent over the Navy's original fiscal 2009 budget submission. The guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) arrives at its new homeport in San Diego on Dec. 8, 2016 (U.S. Navy/Petty Officer 3rd Class Emiline L. M. Senn) ![]() This is deeply unsurprising. While Bloomberg [observes]() that the Zumwalt's sixth delay "may increase doubts the Navy can build, outfit and deliver vessels on time and within cost targets" amid the service's push for 355-ship fleet by 2034, let's be honest: [a day late and a dollar short]() is the Navy's M.O. when it comes to cranking out "advanced" new warships. Look no further than the Littoral Combat Ship, the ostensible backbone of the Navy's 355-hull future fleet that, with a sunk cost of $30 billion over the last two decades for just 35 [insanely buggy vessels](), gained a reputation as a "Little Crappy Ship" that the Navy would rather not even deploy despite rising tensions in littoral environments like the Persian Gulf. And this is to say nothing of the Navy's $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the first of the Navy' next-generation "supercarrier" platforms that remains plagued by unforeseen problems with critical systems like the ship' nuclear power plant and he weapons elevators, as USNI News [reported]() back in March 2019. The Zumwalt is supposed to be the tip of the spear for the Navy's push to unfettered dominance of the world's ocean's, but it's instead been a lightning rod for cost overruns and controversy for more than a decade. Not that it matters, though: if the LCS and[Ford carrier]() are any indication, the lawmakers will likely make the Navy stock up on extra Zumwalt-class floating garbage piles anyway. ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()