Navy’s stealth destroyers to get new weapons and new mission
The Zumwalt-class destroyers were meant to attack land based targets. Mission change- they will now have the mission of attacking enemy vessels.
The Navy has a new vision for what its enormous high-tech destroyers will do: Killing enemy warships at extended ranges. The Navy is asking Congress to fund a conversion of its 600-foot stealth destroyers from primarily a land attack ship to an anti-surface, offensive strike platform, according to budget documents released Feb. 12.
The service’s 2019 budget request includes a request for $89.7 million to transform its Zumwalt-class destroyers by integrating Raytheon’s long-range SM-6 missile, which can dual hat as both an anti-air and anti-surface missile, as well as its Maritime Strike variant of the Tomahawk missile.