China's stealth ship raises eyebrows with striking resemblance to USS Zumwalt
Many indications point to the fact that the American ship USS Zumwalt, considered the most advanced and at the same time the most expensive destroyer ever built, has been copied by the Chinese, or served as a significant inspiration for them. Photos published on the Chinese service Sina Weibo show a vessel strikingly similar to the one belonging to the US Navy.
The Defence Romania service points out that the Chinese are conducting extremely active espionage activities when it comes to the American defence industry. It is worth remembering that in 2014, Su Bin, a Chinese citizen living in Canada, was accused of industrial espionage. Among the charges against him was the theft of classified data from Boeing and Lockheed Martin servers. This included data on C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft and F-35 and F-22 fighters. The man was extradited to the US, where in 2016 he pleaded guilty in a federal court in California.
USS Zumwalt in a Chinese version?
The photo that appeared on the Chinese service Sina Weibo quickly gained popularity. Military analyst HI Sutton stated that it is genuine. It shows a Chinese vessel with a similar design to the USS Zumwalt destroyers. However, it is smaller, closer in size to the American unmanned Sea Hunter ships, which are used to track submarines. In the USS Zumwalt (and most likely in the Chinese vessel as well), the inverted bow design is intended to increase the ship's draft and speed. At the same time, the slanted surfaces and the stealth technology used in the vessel are meant to make it invisible to enemy radar. The composite materials used also have the same purpose.
USS Zumwalt, type DDG 1000, is the latest class of destroyers of the US Navy. One example costs around $3.4-4 billion, which is why Americans gave up on building more than thirty of these units. Ultimately, only three will be constructed. Two units are already in service - USS Zumwalt and USS Michael Monsoor, while the third - USS Lyndon B. Johnson is still under construction. Ships of this class have a displacement of over 15,432 tons, a length of about 183 metres, a width of about 25 metres, and a draft of about 8.5 metres. They can reach speeds exceeding 55 km/h, and they can accommodate a crew of 148 people.
Initially, the destroyers were armed with the Advanced Gun System (AGS), firing precision-guided rocket-propelled ammunition with a range of 116 kilometres. However, the Americans decided to refit them with hypersonic weapons. This refers to the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system with Common Hypersonic Glide Body warheads. The CPS hypersonic missiles, which are a naval version of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, are expected to allow attacks on targets up to 2,700 kilometres away. It is also worth mentioning that the destroyer's equipment includes 80 vertical missile launchers that can target both land and sea targets.
