This is the ugliest looking warship I've ever seen ...

[dogtag]

It's no doubt powerful or it better be in order to
justify how ugly it looks, It doesn't even have a gun.
Warships need a gun even if just for show.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-755443

[Allen]

Yep, it's ugly but so were some of the first iron clad ships of the civil war and it looks similar. Per the article, it's going to Pascagoula ship yard to be outfitted with hypersonic weapons/missiles.

They should disguise it to look like a shrimp boat.

[RED]

The last I heard was the Zumwalt was going to be decommissioned, and it had 2 guns that were great but ammo was not available.

Now they are going to waste millions of dollars. Trust me, those hypersonic missiles are no defense from drones both air borne and surface unmanned kamikazes. Ukraine, without a navy, has sunk 18 Russian ships including the flag ship.

Oh! By the way Zumwalt was a leader in woke measured issues even before the term Woke was born!

[barretcreek]

Hey RED, how'd 'we just need missiles' work out over Hanoi?

[barretcreek]

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/us-navys-death-star-destroyer-prepares-hypersonic-weapon-installation
Good money after bad. And her sister ship is named after LBJ.

[Allen]

And her sister ship is named after LBJ.

We have a Navy ship named POS ?

[RED]

Not sure of your question.

The USN F-4 Phantoms was designed for intercepting and destroying high flying bombers not burning and turning in dogfights. There was no guns on either the F-4B or F-4j. For air to air dog fights our two missiles the Sparrow and Sidewinders were terribly ineffective.

Those missiles with advanced 1960 guidance were failing grossly primarily because they had been attached to F-4?s and treated to 85-100 carrier landings and they were AFU when fired in combat.

I was with a very experienced pilot at a drone shoot at Rosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. We were armed with 4 Sparrows under the fuselage and 2 Sidewinders on pylons under the wings. I wrote down the serial numbers of the missiles and noted the missile in station 1 had a 5 number serial number while the other 3 had a large 6 numbers.

In the air I locked up the BQM drone at 20 miles and the radar would not hold the lock. I tried 4-5 times and the pilot called for boresight. At 6 miles he launched the Sparrow. It malfunctioned and just rolled off under the starboard wing and collided with the starboard pylon, tore it and the Sidewinder off the wing leaving a hole as big as a basketball.

It is proof the Phantom was a tough plane! We managed to safely land at Rosee and there was a lot of damage the main spar was cracked and the stabilator had dozens of holes from the Sidewinder and pylon wreckage.

[barretcreek]

RED,
My understanding was Brass decided dogfights would be standoff with missiles but forgot to check with Ivan, who designed his fighters for close in combat.

[Art]

Those missiles with advanced 1960 guidance were failing grossly primarily because they had been attached to F-4?s and treated to 85-100 carrier landings and they were AFU when fired in combat.

I was with a very experienced pilot at a drone shoot at Rosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. We were armed with 4 Sparrows under the fuselage and 2 Sidewinders on pylons under the wings. I wrote down the serial numbers of the missiles and noted the missile in station 1 had a 5 number serial number while the other 3 had a large 6 numbers.

In the air I locked up the BQM drone at 20 miles and the radar would not hold the lock. I tried 4-5 times and the pilot called for boresight. At 6 miles he launched the Sparrow. It malfunctioned and just rolled off under the starboard wing and collided with the starboard pylon, tore it and the Sidewinder off the wing leaving a hole as big as a basketball.

It is proof the Phantom was a tough plane! We managed to safely land at Rosee and there was a lot of damage the main spar was cracked and the stabilator had dozens of holes from the Sidewinder and pylon wreckage.

With your comments in mind, Red - I was watching an interview with a Phantom pilot who's opinion mirrored yours and he did use the Sparrow in combat and said it was an absolute POS. He talked about engaging a MiG 21, got a lock on him fired a Sparrow but the missile didn't track. He tried again, this time the missile did track, hit the MiG outboard on the starbord wing, took out 1/4 - 1/3 of the wing but didn't explode. The seriously wounded but still airworthy MiG was now in a race for home when the Phantom pilot, IIRC got him with a Sidewinder that did work. Unfortunately the Commie missiles did work better, generally, at least the heat seekers, though. One F-100 pilot was engaged with some MiGs, heard a bang and realized he was hit by a Commie heat seeker (Atoll??) that didn't explode so theirs while better apparently weren't perfect either. He carried the missile back to his base sticking out of the side of his ship.