USS Zumwalt

Many of the ship's features were originally developed under the DD21 program ("21st Century Destroyer"). In 2001, Congress cut the DD-21 program by half as part of the SC21 program. To save it, the acquisition program was renamed as DD(X) and heavily reworked. The initial funding allocation for DDG-1000 was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007.[20] By February 2008, a $1.4 billion contract had been awarded to Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine,[21] and full rate production officially began a year later, on 11 February 2009.[22]

Zumwalt's deckhouse in transit on 6 November 2012

In July 2008, a construction timetable was set for General Dynamics to deliver the ship in April 2013, with a March 2015 target date for Zumwalt to meet her initial operating capability[23] but, by 2012 the planned completion and delivery of the vessel was delayed to the 2014 fiscal year.[24] The first section of the ship was laid down on the slipway at Bath Iron Works on 17 November 2011,[24] by which point, fabrication of the ship was over 60% complete.[24] The naming ceremony was planned for 19 October 2013,[25] but was canceled due to the United States federal government shutdown of 2013.[26] The vessel was launched on 29 October 2013.[27][28]

In January 2014, Zumwalt began to prepare for heavy weather trials, to see how the ship and her instrumentation react to high winds, stormy seas, and adverse weather conditions. The ship's new wave-piercing inverted bow and tumblehome hull configuration reduce her radar cross-section. Tests involved lateral and vertical accelerations and pitch and roll. Later tests included fuel on-loading, data center tests, propulsion events, X-band radar evaluations, and mission systems activation to finalize integration of electronics. These all culminated in builders' trials and acceptance trials, with delivery for US Navy tests in late 2014, and with initial operating capability (IOC) to be reached by 2016.[29]

USS Zumwalt underway for the first time conducting at-sea tests and trials in the Atlantic Ocean, 7 December 2015.

Zumwalt's first commanding officer was Captain James A. Kirk.[30] Kirk attracted some media attention when he was first named the captain, due to the similarity of his name to that of the Star Trek television character Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner. Shatner wrote a letter of support to Zumwalt's crew in April 2014.[31] On 7 December 2015, the ship departed Bath Iron Works for sea trials to allow the Navy and contractors to operate the vessel under rigorous conditions to determine whether Zumwalt is ready to join the fleet as an actively commissioned warship.[13]

On 12 December 2015, during sea trials, Zumwalt responded to a US Coast Guard call for assistance for a fishing boat captain who was experiencing a medical emergency 40 nautical miles (74 km) from Portland, Maine. Due to deck conditions, the Coast Guard helicopter was unable to hoist the patient from the fishing boat, so Zumwalt's crew used their 11-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) to transfer him to the destroyer, from which he was transported to shore by the Coast Guard helicopter and then to a hospital.[32] The US Navy accepted delivery of Zumwalt on 20 May 2016.[33] In September 2016, it was reported that the vessel needed repairs after the detection of a seawater leak in the ship's auxiliary motor drive oil system.[34] The US Navy commissioned Zumwalt on 15 October 2016, in Baltimore during Fleet Week.[4]

On 21 November 2016, Zumwalt lost propulsion in her port shaft while passing through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean en route to her homeport in San Diego.[35] Water had intruded in two of the four bearings that connect Zumwalt's port and starboard Advanced Induction Motors to its drive shafts.[35] Both drive shafts failed and Zumwalt struck the lock walls in the canal, causing minor cosmetic damage.[35] Zumwalt's passage through the Panama Canal had to be completed with tugboats.[35] Zumwalt underwent repairs at Vasco Núñez de Balboa Naval Base near the Pacific end of the canal before continuing on to Naval Station San Diego.[35][36] Upon the ship's arrival in San Diego, the leak was revealed to be through the lubrication cooling system, though the cause remains unknown. Sources close to the incident described the completion of the canal transit with tugboats a prudent measure, and lauded Captain Kirk for quick thinking and integrity to acknowledge the cooling system failure rather than risk damage to the propulsion system by steering the ship to the dock without assistance. [37]

In April 2019, Zumwalt departed San Diego for a first operational deployment into the Pacific since the shipyard availability conducted in 2017 and 2018. [38] This patrol included a visit to Ketchikan, Alaska, [39] during which Zumwalt's watch teams were able to conduct stability trials in stormy seas (Sea State 6),[40] and Pearl Harbor, marking the first visit of a Zumwalt Class Destroyer to Hawaii.[41] The Navy accepted delivery in April 2020, preparing for more sea tests.[42]