ORIGINAL: Dysta
Someone will miss the iconic mast, snorkel and larger turret when this is the conduit of the future warships.
Unless the Flight III Burke's wind up with a giant enclosed hexagon topside, I think iconic masts will be lighting up radar screens for the foreseeable future...
One thing I've picked up from having the Zumwalt in the neighborhood over the past year (and which you can't really get from the CGI visuals) is just her sheer size when compared to the Burkes! The only reason they even called her a destroyer in the first place is because they planned on making an even larger Cruiser with the CG 21. Seeing as they'll be the first ships built since WWII to fulfill the Maritime Fire Support mission, it seems only fitting that they should be christened as BBs... They're about as big as the USS Arizona anyway!
As strange as it may seem, the super stealthy high-tech wonders like the DDG-1000s, F-22, and Seawolf subs have in a certain sense, already been eclipsed by a newer naval paradigm that emphasizes
payloads over
platforms. Despite (or perhaps because of) exceptions in the LCS and F-35 programs, future hardware will likely be limited to a small core of common, standardized hulls and airframes. Platforms like the SSN-774, DDG-51 Flight III, FA/18 Superhornet, MH-60R, P8 Poseidon, E2D Hawkeye etc... might at first appear outdated next to their sleek superstars, but they point to a new reality wherein military hardware need not be anything more than a bunch of really big information servers networked into giant boxes of missiles and UAVs... Of course, the enemy will always have their say... And if networked unmanned warfare gives one side too much of an advantage then its safe to say the other side will do their best to make warfare as isolated and dirty as possible...
In my opinion, I think the Payloads>Platforms strategy is sound as long as the payloads actually hold up their end of the bargain. Anyone remotely familiar with the workings of military procurement in the US has every right to feel uneasy about something so dependent on the efficiency of US Military Contractors... Yet, there was something in the late-Cold War era faith in high tech platforms that seemed to ignore everything we learned from the last time we fought a major power war... For all the horror stories about Sherman Tank crews being sent as cannon fodder, there are also cases like the Hellcat fighter. A fighter that improved on, rather than replaced, the obsolete Wildcat which allowed them to retool production lines quickly enough to turn the tide of fighting in the Pacific.
In the meantime, I'll enjoy watching the superstar stealth boat from my front row seat with the satisfaction of knowing that the most technologically advanced ship in the world runs on Linux!
