Destroyer Zumwalt Returns To Home Port In San Diego Due To A Maintenance Issue

The guided-missile destroyer Zumwalt quickly turned to the home port in San Diego last week, hampered by a maintenance issue a day after it got underway.

We expect the vessel to resume transit in the future, said Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesperson associated with the Naval Surface Force, in a statement to the Navy Times. The destroyer commissioned in 2016 set sail from the port to get back on Friday. The Zumwalt was heading to the new home port of Pascagoula in Mississippi, where Abrahamson mentioned that it would get tech upgrades, including the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missile system.

#USSZumwalt steams through the #PacificOcean while underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet. #FreeAndOpenIndoPacific #Readiness

: MC1 Peter Burghart pic.twitter.com/3TWAkgqwOk

— U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) April 12, 2022

The upgrades will ensure that Zumwalt continues to secure its position as one of the most technologically advanced and lethal vessels of the U.S. Navy, per the spokesman, while denying revealing the details of technical snafu that eventually turned it around. He said they must get to the details of specific ship maintenance issues due to operational security. USNI News was the first to report Zumwalt’s maintenance problem and the return to San Diego.

The Navy has been shooting to field hypersonic weapons on Zumwalt by 2025. Lockheed Martin declared in February 2023 that it would have a vessel-based hypersonic missile launcher prepared for its flight tests next year.

The firm is also developing the launcher, weapon control system, and other missile pieces, while Ingalls Shipbuilding has been updating the Zumwalt to accommodate the weapon system. In the meantime, the Army, which has worked with the Navy to develop the missile, is all prepared to field the weapon system by the end of the year.

The destroyer reportedly wrapped up almost three months of operations in the Western Pacific last fall, carrying out joint and bilateral operations as part of its first-ever operational employment.

Captain Shea Thompson, the commander of the Surface Development Squadron One that overlooks the concept development of Zumwalt class and fleet introduction work, informed the reporter’s last fall that the events included some simulated maritime fires training with the U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers as well as the 613th Air Operations Center based in Hawaii.

Similarly, the vessel executed air operations with the U.S. Army units and the development activity for a new mine countermeasures strategy with a forward-deployed explosive ordnance disposal unit.

Reference: Navy Times, News Yahoo, Flipboard

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