The US Navy's Zumwalt-Class Stealth Destroyer Is No 57,000-Ton Iowa-Class Battleship: Summed Up in 1 Word

The Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers (DDG-1000) are often compared to the Iowa-class battleships in sheer mythos, but naval coverage from expert Sean Spoonts says they aren’t built to be 57,000-ton equivalents. Instead, the ships were designed around a land-attack artillery mission for Marines, centered on two 155mm guns that fire GPS-guided Long-Range Land Attack Projectiles up to 100 miles inland. Each ship carries a 920-round magazine and can fire about 600 rounds in 30 minutes, with roughly 900 precision-guided rounds available. The program originally planned for 32 hulls but was cut multiple times as priorities shifted toward Chinese missile, submarine, and anti-ship threats, ending with only three ships.