New US Navy Zumwalt-Class Destroyer To Be Commissioned On Saturday - Pentagon

� WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) The US Navy will commission a new destroyer of the Zumwalt class, the Michael Mansour, at the end of this week, the Department of Defense announced in a news release.

"The Navy will commission its newest destroyer, USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), Saturday, January 26... at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, where the ship will be homeported," the release said on Wednesday.

The Zumwalt-class fields a larger flight deck and has capacity for two MH-60R Sea Hawk combat helicopters. The ship's Vertical Launch System has larger ion cells than earlier vessels, allowing the Zumwalts to fire larger and more advanced land and anti-ship missiles, the release explained.

However, the stealth Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer project has faced a number of setbacks, including its reliance on highly expensive ammunition.

The Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) rounds that the Zumwalt-class destroyers were originally designed to use cost a mere $50,000 each, according to preliminary estimates in 2001. But the price for each round of ordnance grew to $800,000 by 2016.