Destroyer Archives - usatoday24

The US built a futuristic destroyer that did not turn out as expected. The rescue arrives at hypersonic speed

July 23, 2026 by usatoday24

He USS Zumwalt was designed to represent what naval warfare of the future would be like, but its story ended up telling something quite different. The US Navy reduced the class from 32 planned units to just three, while costs grew and several of its original capacities were reduced. From the outside, the ship still seemed like a break from everything that had come before; In practice, it accumulated technical problems and systems that were difficult to sustain. That distance between what was promised and what was built is what the US is now trying to correct. The return of the Zumwalt. Of the three units of the class, the immediate novelty affects the first. The US Navy plans rejoin the USS Zumwalt into the fleet by September 2026, equipped with four tubes capable of holding three fast attack missiles each, up to 12 in total. It will be the first ship of the Navy prepared to fire hypersonic weapons. The other two units will receive the same configuration: work on the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson is already underway, while the modernization of the USS Michael Monsoor will arrive later.A destroyer for another war. The original bet was not limited to making it less visible to the radar. The Zumwalt was built around a hybrid electric system that powers both the propulsion and its equipment and can generate approximately 78 megawattsalmost the same as a nuclear aircraft carrier. Even at 20 knots, the Navy attributes 58 megawatts of reserve power. What promised scope for incorporating advanced capabilities also created a dependency on proprietary systems that were complex and expensive to maintain within such a short series. Two cannons without a clear mission. The problem was not only technical, but also operational: the Zumwalt had been surrounded by doubts about what role it could reasonably fulfill within the fleet. Its two 155-millimeter advanced weapons systems have been dismantled to free up space for hypersonic launchers, while other advanced capabilities of the class have already been reduced. Hence, questions about its possible tasks persisted over the years. The new weaponry does not simply add firepower: it attempts to give the ship a more concrete strategic mission. Speed to break through. What the CPS attack system provides is not only speed, but a trajectory that is more difficult to anticipate. A multi-stage rocket propels an unpowered hypersonic glider vehicle to the necessary conditions and, after separation, it advances into the atmosphere while maneuvering towards its target. Compared to a traditional ballistic missile, this combination of speed, relatively straight trajectory and maneuverability poses more detection and interception problems. The design took its toll again. The modernization forced essential systems of the ship to be shut down and restarted for the first time since its delivery to the Navy, an operation during which failures appeared in its complex electrical network. Added to that was another problem:During the installation of the pipes, more wiring was removed than expected and it was necessary to add additional wiring to adapt the new configuration of the boat. In August 2025, the Navy added 230,000 hours of unplanned work to the $20 million contract. Three ships, same delay. What started as a delay in the first unit has spread to the entire program. The GAO estimates that the modernization of the three ships is 24 months behind schedule, despite the fact that the USS Zumwalt had reached 94% progress in January 2026. The first sea launch test has also been postponed, which moved from 2025 to 2027. The schedules of the USS Michael Monsoor and the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson have not been left out either. The bottleneck is on land. The Department of Defense plans to invest more than $50 billion in the various programs necessary to develop, test, produce and deploy this capability, including destroyers, future Virginia-class submarines and the Army land system. However, the contractor’s facility can only produce between six and seven missiles per year, compared to the 12 per year that, according to data collected by the GAO, would be necessary to stabilize production. In April 2026, the estimated average cost per unit was around 67 million. A rescue with conditions. The USS Zumwalt will return with a more defined mission: attacking high-value, heavily defended targets at long range. That does not, however, make modernization a complete solution. What we have seen is a powerful capability, but limited by the scarcity of missiles, their high cost and the difficulties of sustaining such a unique class. The US has found a clearer use for the destroyer, although it has not yet resolved all the problems it has had since its origin. Images | National Museum of the United States Navy In Xataka | Germany wanted to armor its army with a volunteer military. He has encountered a boom of conscientious objectors

80 years ago an American destroyer attacked what it believed to be an enemy submarine. We just discovered it was a sunken ship

June 28, 2026 by usatoday24

In June 1942, something unprecedented in modern American history happened: someone invaded them. In the middle of World War II, Japanese troops landed on Attu Island, in the extreme west of Alaska. What took place then was an icy and fleeting battle that resulted in the death of more than 3,000 people in less than three weeks. Faced with well-known operations reproduced ad nauseam in cinema on the European front or the South Pacific, the battle of Attu She was and is a great unknown. Eighty years later, the remains of that battle were still sunk on the seabed of the Aleutian Islands. Until nothing ago. The discovery. In July 2024, an archeology team funded by the US oceanographic agency NOAA and the US National Park Service carried out the first in-depth underwater exploration in the waters of Attu. There they found two shipwrecks from World War II: on the one hand, the Kotohira Maru, a Japanese military cargo ship sunk on January 5, 1943 by B-24 bombers. On the other hand, the SS Dellwood, an American cable ship that ran aground on an underwater pinnacle seven months later, on July 20, 1943. Both wrecks lie just 25 kilometers apart from each other. Why is it important. Because the Battle of Attu is probably the least studied campaign of the war and this finding is only the beginning of deeper research. Beyond recovering this military history, this discovery brings to the forefront another little-known tragedy: the one suffered by the Saskinax̂ indigenous people of Attu. After the occupation, the Saskinax̂ were deported to Japan, but when the war ended they were prohibited from returning: Attu had become a US military base. Of the 41 prisoners sent to Japan, only 25 survived and most ended up relocated to another island. Context. Despite being a brief and almost unknown battle, it was the fiercest: the ratio of American to Japanese casualties was the second highest of the war, only surpassed by the famous battle of Iwo Jima, as explained by the research team. The Kotohira Maru was bombed when it was trying to supply the troops isolated in Attu: it was carrying wood, food, fuel and construction materials, essential for the survival of the Japanese soldiers, who endured harsh climatic conditions (it is practically in the Arctic) and almost no trees. For its part, the SS Dellwood ran aground while laying communications cables between islands. In detail. To find the ships, the researchers dragged from their boat a high-resolution sonar capable of “photographing” the seabed with an accuracy of centimeters. When the sonar detected something of interest, they sent an underwater drone to investigate it closely with a video camera. In five days of work they inspected more than 1,000 targets at the bottom. But perhaps the most striking thing was not what they found, but what they solved. In May 1943, the destroyer USS Phelps attacked what it believed to be a Japanese submarine near Holtz Bay. They were wrong: this study has revealed that what the destroyer had detected as a submarine was actually the hull of the Kotohira Maru deposited on the seabed. Yes, but. The study has certain limitations. Strong underwater currents made the remote-controlled underwater robot’s work difficult, especially on the Kotohira Maru, leaving large areas of the wreck undocumented. The team recognizes that they need a more powerful robot to complete the job. There are also unanswered questions. Without going any further, the identity of the Kotohira Maru crew remains a mystery: the files only confirm that two people were rescued, a figure that the study’s own authors consider improbably low. And no one has yet addressed a thorny issue: who has legal sovereignty over these war wrecks. In Xataka | Barcelona started digging to build a parking lot. He ended up discovering a 10 m medieval ship of uncertain origin. In Xataka | The 17th century ship refloated in Cádiz held a surprise for archaeologists. One of more than 50 meters Cover | US Navy and Exploration of Alaska’s World War II Submerged Heritage: The Kotahira Maru and S.S. Dellwood Wreck Sites off Attu Island

China wants to win the military space race and that is why it is working on a humble project: a space destroyer

February 14, 2026 by usatoday24

China has underway a space project worthy of ‘Star Wars’. In another context, it could sound like a tremendous exaggeration, but only one thing has to be said: the image that crowns this article belongs to a propaganda video from the Nantianmen Project. Specifically, it is the Luanniao, a larger space aircraft carrier than any aircraft carrier and able to throw hypersonic missiles and unmanned space fighters. More than terrifying, for some, it is simply high-tech theater. Nantianmen. First of all, you have to separate concepts. Nantianmen is a Chinese air force project that began in 2017 focused on the design of a global defense system. This includes practically everything we can think of such as fighters, weapons, autonomous vehicles, transport and launch platforms. It is a program that seeks to explore the paths that Chinese military aviation may have in the future, and it must be understood that, within Nantianmen, there are two types of designs: those that have been brought to the real plane through models and those that are on paper. An example of the first is Baidi, a manned aircraft that would become the jewel in the crown of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. And an example of the second is the monstrous destroyer Imperial Chinese. Luanniao. The video that I leave above these lines is the one that the state channel CCTV published a few days ago in which we can see… a lot of 3D elements doing movie things. In certain fragments the Luanniao appears, but it is not the first time that this space aircraft carrier can be seen. As pointed out South China Morning Postin 2018, shortly after the project started, the AVIC Global Culture Communication Company – a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China – showed a conceptual model of the Luanniao at an air show. We now have some more details thanks to the most recent CCTV broadcast. According to the network’s data, the Luanniao will make any conventional aircraft carrier look ridiculous: 242 meters long. 684 meters wingspan. Weight of more than 100,000 tons. Capable of carrying 88 unmanned Xuannv fighters both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. And a full weapons team, with particle acceleration cannons and hypersonic missiles. To give us an idea, the American aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford It measures 337 meters by 77 meters. Pride. In the same video a model of the Baidi appears, a variable geometry wing aircraft that, as we say, seems to be the banner of Chinese aerospace innovation. In fact, the Asian giant is testing its new generation of both combat-ready fighters like those focused on air supremacy and reconnaissance. But, obviously, the one that attracts the most attention is Lunniao. From the network, it was commented that the aircraft carrier will become operational in two or three decades, and military analyst Wang Mingzhi, from the PLA Air Force Command College, affirms that technologies such as those of the Nantianmen Project reflect both the “expectations for future aerospace and space superiority and the directions being pursued to safeguard national security.” “It is not a question of whether they can be achieved, but rather which ones will be done first and when they will be implemented,” pointed out. “China is creating the impression that it is working on technologies that no one else can achieve. It is still ‘Star Wars’ material to inspire the Chinese audience” – Peter Layton Arching an eyebrow. Now, Western analysts are not so optimistic about something that has been described as mere propaganda rather than practical weapons development. Attacking the more earthly issue, defense analyst Peter Layton of Australia’s Griffith Asia Institute point Yes, the Luanniao would surpass both current defenses as storms when flying at an altitude higher than that which surface-to-air missiles and conventional fighter aircraft can reach. The “but” is that the technology to remain suspended at the edge of the atmosphere and launch missiles from there is science fiction. Layton comments that “it would require enormous amounts of fuel and propulsion mechanisms that have not yet been created,” ensuring that China has between 10 and 15 years left to develop the rocket technology necessary to put such an aircraft carrier into orbit. In D.W.space analyst Heinrich Kreft describe the project as “completely unreal from today’s perspective,” but he does not say that it is smoke because “much of what was fiction 20 or 30 years ago is real today.” Other analysts closer to the United States see the Luanniao as something with a single objective: to make the world believe that China has the technology to build this while hoarding resources to do other things. The undeniable. Whether it is psychological warfare, excessive ambition, smoke or something it is really working on, the undeniable thing is that China is taking giant steps in the new space race and weapons. We have already mentioned that they are accelerating the development of combat aircraft with stealth capabilities capable of standing up to whatever the United States deploys near its waters, but they have also joined that “first come, first served” space policy. Beyond satellites and systems that are a threat to security in space – according to the United States – they have been developing satellite technology for years. autonomous spacecraft and of reusable rockets with LandSpacethe answer to SpaceX’s Starship. But, in the end, all that is much more realistic than the enormous ship of 120,000 tons and more than 600 meters in span. But, as Kreft says, 30 years ago we also thought that current vehicles They were science fiction… Image | CCTV In Xataka | The US operation in Iran has staged one of the most impressive milestones of military engineering: the B-2 Spirit

The Star Destroyer is the terror of Star Wars. But as one fan has calculated, building it in real life wouldn’t be cheap.

November 9, 2025 by usatoday24

‘Star Wars’ is full of iconic ships. From the Millennium Falcon and its Kessel Corridor in just 12 parsecs to silhouettes identifiable at a glance such as the X-Wing or the TIE Fighter. We associate ‘Star Wars‘ with frenetic combats in space, but we also have iconic mastodons, authentic galactic monsters like the unmistakable Imperial Star Destroyer. Well: now we not only know how much it impresses us, but also how much it would cost us. What is a Star Destroyer. This 1.6 kilometer long, wedge-shaped beauty exhibits measurements and characteristics that make it a mini space station of considerable power. Let’s see: Approximate mass: 40 million metric tons Engines: Three KDY Destroyer-I ion engines and Cygnus Spaceworks Gemnon-4 units Maximum speed in atmosphere: 975 km/h Hyperlight Capability: Yes, with a class 2 impeller Heavy and medium turbolasers located in batteries throughout the ship Ion cannons to disable enemy systems 30 torpedo launchers or missile slots Ability to deploy 72 TIE fighters, as well as AT-AT and AT-ST ground vehicles Estimated total crew: between 37,000 and 60,000 people It functions as a small floating city, with areas for operations, daily life, maintenance and storage So the money what. Although less monumental than the Death Star, Star Destroyers require immense resources to construct. Estimates based on scientific analysis and data from the saga and collected on the website Gamestar They suggest that building, maintaining, and even disposing of when the time comes for a single Star Destroyer could cost a fortune. Used as a basis for comparison the price it costs to build a real aircraft carrier: between 13,000 and 17,000 million dollars each. And that’s just the beginning. We’re not just talking about construction itself. Resources and construction time skyrocket when considering mass production, as the Empire deploys dozens of destroyers to maintain its dominance. In addition, training and supplying personnel generate recurring costs. And maintenance, of course: refueling, repairing war damage, technological updates and replacing parts, which requires the construction of strategic space bases. We are going in parts, breaking down this authentic black hole of pasta. The initial transport. Transporting 40 million tons of construction material to space is logistically complex and expensive. With an extremely optimistic price of 10,000 euros per ton, the initial cost would be around 400 billion euros. In the long term, the cost could be reduced to about 200 euros per kilo, equivalent to about 8 billion euros. If we talk about current technologies (that is, no teleportation or similar), the realistic cost for this volume would be around 40 billion euros. What the material costs. The construction of the Star Destroyer would likely use high-strength, low-alloy steels, the cost of which is estimated at around €90 billion. More advanced systems such as propulsion, weapons and other high-performance components would require more expensive special alloys, adding at least an additional 110 billion euros. Altogether, conservative estimated costs for materials would be around €200 billion in total. To ride. The Star Destroyer is significantly more expensive to manufacture than mere materials, as labor and countless tests can cost five to fifteen times as much. The construction cost is estimated at around 2 billion euros. Furthermore, adding the costs of research, testing, infrastructure and development, especially in new energy and propulsion systems, could conservatively add another 5 billion euros to the total budget. The invoice. In short, these gentlemen will have to go and digest: the total expense to build and maintain the imperial Star Destroyer is estimated at around 15.2 billion euros, assuming transportation costs. Without including development expenses, the cost would be around 14 billion euros. But we can go up: if additional elements such as technical reserves, energy systems, lifetime maintenance and scrapping are considered, the joke can approach 40 billion euros. To put it in perspective, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier cost around 12 billion euros, so a Star Destroyer would cost almost four thousand times that amount. In Xataka | Adam Driver launched a Star Wars movie project about Kylo Ren. Disney rejected it because they didn’t understand it.

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