DDG-1000 completes first ‘fast cruise’

BATH, Maine – The first-in-class guided missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) just completed its first four-day “fast cruise” Oct. 15, according to an internal release from the Bath (Maine) Ironworks shipyard. Round 2 could be as early as mid-November. The fast cruise was the first demonstration of the continuous operation of all systems required in underway operations, Steve Colfer, BIW’s Director of Test & Trials, said in the release. USS Zumwalt’s first sea trials will be a seven-day “shake down” that could begin as early as Dec. 7, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley told Defense News. (Source: Bangor Daily News 11/12/15) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding Note: Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Composite Center of Excellence in Gulfport, Miss., built and delivered the composite deckhouses and hangars for DDGs 1000 and 1001. The 900-ton deckhouses provide an advanced structure to house the ship’s bridge, radars, antennae and intake/exhaust systems and are designed to provide a smaller radar cross-section than any other ship in the Navy fleet. Since providing those two deckhouses, HII's Gulfport center has been shut down.