By Scott Jackson
04/11/2025
Today the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet released several images showing the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) on their final deployments before her planned 2026/2027 decommissioning.
However, while the Nimitz is a good looking ship the rare part was one of its escorts in Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG 11). Included in the pictures was USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001). One of only three commissioned Zumwalt-Class Stealth Missile Destroyer.
The Zumwalt-class Michael Monsoor, along with the Nimitz and the rest of CSG 11 are currently on deployment in the Pacific Ocean region.
Also included in the image are Arleigh Burke-Class Guided-Missile Destroyers; USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG l54), USS Gridley (DDG 101), and USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) And U.S. Navy Replenishment Tanker, USNS John Lewis (T-AO-205).
To the future… and beyond.
The Zumwalt class was originally designed with littoral operations in mind and they were given a pair of Advanced Gun System (AGS) for their main guns. The AGS was designed for shore bombardment fire missions in support of ground operations however the ammo was very expensive (estimated at $800,000 to $1,000,000 per round in 2016) and only one ammo type was designed so now the gun has no ammo and the weapons is useless. The navy will eventually replace the guns with other systems like large Vertical Launch Cells for the navy’s hypersonic missile currently being tested by the USS Zumwalt. The AGS was designed around the time of the battleships being decommissioned. The navy was nervous about giving up its ability to carry out shore bombardment so the AGS was designed. The now canceled round that would have been fired by the AGS is the Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) a rocket assisted precision GPS guided 155mm high explosive warhead that could fire 100 nautical miles.
Zumwalt’s odd shape came from the SC-21 (Surface Combatant for the 21st Century) research and development program started back in 1994. The program came up with many interesting designs such as the DD-21 or the destroyer for the 21st century, which has the distinctive hull now used by the Zumwalt class.
I see a bit of inspiration from the French La Fayette-class stealth frigate in both ships.
Aside from the DD-21 the SC-21 had several other interesting ideas I found in my research. One was called an arsenal ship. A massive floating missile platform with as many as 500 VLS cells loaded with Tomahawk cruise missiles. The ship was to be controlled by either a small crew or remotely piloted by crew members on one of the other ship. Todays navy thinking would have an aegis equipped cruiser other ship manually controlling this ship or possible one of the AWACS or AEW planes.
The role this arsenal ship would have played is largely filled by the U.S. submarine fleet at the moment as the four oldest of the ballistic missile SSBN subs have been converted to the SSGN configuration. This change took the Trident missile cells and changed them out their nuclear payload for smaller but more numerous cruise missiles.
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-Scott
Global Conflict Reporting 
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