Russian Military Expert: US Navy’s New Stealth Destroyer A “Giant Washtub”

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There has been much hype around the US Navy’s long awaited next-generation super-destroyer, the USS Zumwalt. It has been described as a “behemoth nearly undetectable to adversaries until it is too late,” and it set to become the most advanced and largest destroyer in the US Navy fleet. Not everyone, however, is as impressed by the $4.4bn, 186m ship as the Navy would like.

Russian retired colonel Viktor Baranets, a prominent analyst and commentator who writes for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, has told Radio Sputnik that claims of near-invisibility are ludicrous, and the price tag too hefty to be reasonable.

“With an annual defense budget of over $600 billion, the Pentagon can take the liberty of conducting various kinds of experiments, including spending $4.4 billion on a single destroyer. By comparison, one US [Virginia-class] nuclear submarine, the newest in the fleet, costs about $2.2 billion. In other words, they used the budget for two nuclear subs to build one Zumwalt. What can be said? Americans love grandiose projects which sometimes go beyond the scope of reason,” said Baranets.

Baranets went on to explain why the Zumwalt’s stealth technology could not match the powers of a modern military power, saying:

“With regard to its stealth, this is just a fairy tale for fools. Imagine a colossus with a solid wall the height of a sixteen-story building. Given the capabilities of current weapons using space and aerial reconnaissance, in addition to those of UAVs, this giant washtub cannot remain an inconspicuous target on the sea surface.”