With slick sides and sharp angles, the Michael Monsoor and its sister ship Zumwalt cut a distinct silhouette along the waters of San Diego.
Unlike a nearby aircraft carrier whose radar juts into the air, the Monsoor's composite material deckhouse is polygonal and covered with material that can absorb radar waves and increase the destroyer's stealthiness. Its "tumblehome" hull looks like something you'd see on a ship built before World War I.
But developing that cutting-edge technology has proved more difficult than expected, and its deployment has been complicated by a strategic pivot in the ship's mission.
The Navy is set to commission the second ship in its Zumwalt class of destroyers as the USS Michael Monsoor in a ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California, on Saturday.
There's no denying that the Navy’s newest destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, looks sleek is hell on the outside, and watching it fire off 10 sweet Long Range Land-Attack Projectile rounds in a minute is enough to bring a tear to any patriot’s eye.
The Maine-built USS Zumwalt, the first-in-class “stealth” destroyer that left the Bath shipyard on Sept. 7, broke down Monday night while passing through the Panama Canal and was towed by tugs through the locks toward the Pacific Ocean.
