Most sophisticated US warship in Panama during Xi visit
180201-N-N2201-001 Bath, Maine (Feb. 1, 2018) The Navy's next generation destroyer, the future USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), successfully completed acceptance. The U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey reviewed the ship and its crew during a series of demonstrations both pier side and underway, evaluating the ship's construction and compliance with Navy specifications. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Bath Iron Works/Released)
When Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the Panama Canal, he is likely to see the most sophisticated warship in the world on the banks of the waterway: the USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001).
The presence of the vessel in Panamanian waters is officially sold as a reminder that Panama is a very important security ally of Washington in the region, but in other circles, it is considered a demonstration of muscles before the representative of Communist China says Critica.
Its planned official inauguration is planned for January 26, 2019.
The 610 feet ship, has a tumblehole hull with wave perforations, stealth design and is equipped with some of the most advanced combat technologies. The shape of the superstructure and the arrangement of its antennas significantly reduce the cross section of the radar, which makes the destroyer less visible to enemy radars.
The destroyer of the Zumwalt class is powered by a complex electrical system, which includes two Rolls-Royce MT-30 gas turbines and two Rolls Royce MT-5 auxiliary gas turbines. Its Integrated Power System (IPS) can generate more than 75 megawatts of power. The amount of electricity produced is “unprecedented in any other non-nuclear surface ship.”
The cost of the sophisticated ship was $4.4 billion.
The USS Michael Monsoor displaces approximately 15 thousand tons and has a crew of 158, including an aviation detachment.
The ship is named after the second-class sub-officer Michael A. Monsoor, a US Navy Seal who ho was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his “heroic actions and his implacable courage” while serving in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006.
