USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000)

The Zumwalt, as seen in-game

* Base
* Top

The USS Zumwalt is an American destroyer featured in the game.

## History:

The USS Zumwalt, the lead ship of Zumwalt class destroyer named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, was an American Destroyer built as a special "stealth destroyer" as part of a plan to build superior stealth ships for the US Navy. The project was scrapped however due to increasing budget which only 3 ships were completed out of 32 and only 2 are on active duty. Laid down in November 2011, the Zumwalt took her trial in December 2015. The Zumwalt was commissioned but only served for such a short time. The armament of the Zumwalt, the 15.5 cm Advanced Gun System, is still being developed for the class. There are many rumors about the US Navy's plan to arm the Zumwalt-Class with a laser gun system; The system was tested on a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), which exploded. A video was taken of the Zumwalt doing so.

## Overview

The Zumwalt possesses the advantage of stealth and a rather formidable armaments setup, and also a 20% dollar and gold boost per every match conclusion.

The ship has garnered a popular reputation among players, mostly due to its railguns and its popularity and military significance in reality. Both minor and major internet celebrities often showcase this ship and its capabilities in a match.

The ship also has its own unique camouflage, which costs 14,000 gold. However, it is advised not to purchase and use the camouflage, since its "lightning effect" actually reveals to rival ships the position of the Zumwalt even if it was undetected.

## Tactics

### When playing as a Zumwalt

The Zumwalt has a significant advantage over other ships during the beginning of a match due to its stealth. It can attack enemies even without getting spotted under the right conditions and cause confusion to the enemy team. The ship's relatively large gun and average missile armament allows it to deal heavy damage to targets (with the right equipment), additionally another significant advantage of Zumwalt is it is the only ship in Tier 3 with both of it's main guns on the front deck of the ship. This may not seem much but this gives Zumwalt players the ability to hide their citadel and fire it's guns simultaneously beyond cover while having minimal exposure. This can be very useful to chip away healths of Battleships and heavy cruisers while staying relatively safe, but the ship itself has its own share of problems too. The ship's lack of proper anti air defense makes it an object of mockery to aircraft carriers, but this can be solved by following allies who will provide the ship with an umbrella of anti air defense, although doing so may reduce your evasion potential and overall freedom of movement. If you do plan to go it alone, it is highly recommended to mount the Rapidfire paired to either the Garpun or Type 730C, which will give you much more satisfactory protection against missiles and aircraft.

The ship has a relatively high speed and extremely fast acceleration, allowing it to outflank any slower and more dangerous warships whilst allowing it to give chase to weak and vulnerable ones. It's rather satisfactory health pool will also give players some time to survive in battle.

### When playing along a Zumwalt

The Zumwalt has a distressing lack of anti-air capabilities compared to its tier contemporaries so it is advisable to escort the ship and stay near if if possible, since the Zumwalt will need every extra bit of anti-air cover if can get. As a cruiser or battleship, you can stick next to the Zumwalt to both act as a source of damage and air cover for the Zumwalt. As a destroyer or submarine, you can harass enemy ships and force their attention away from the Zumwalt. As a carrier, loiter your anti air fighters over the Zumwalt.

### When playing against Zumwalt

Spotting the Zumwalt should be of importance during the start of the match. The ship's stealth can only get the ship thus far, and when it gets detected, it will struggle to escape heavy fire. Sending several missiles towards the ship and attacking it with waves of aircraft can effectively overwhelm its poor anti air defense and make it utterly vulnerable to other ships. Submarines are at an disproportionate disadvantage due to the Zumwalt lacking any effective ASW options other than swarmer missiles and the helicopter they carry onboard.

## Suggested armaments setup

The ship, with its flexible armaments setup, can be armed with various weapons that will furthermore improve the ship's performance. Below are some suggested weapons setup. But, bear in mind that these are just suggestions.

* Missile: RUM-139, DF-17, SCALP Naval, Zircon (for players with the "hero" title), or X-51 Waverider (Immune to flares and AA with proper technique)
* Cannon: Koalitsiya-F, MONARC (for long range sniping, very effective), HP/J 45 (for enhanced anti aircraft defense and overall DPM), Railguns(Stock)
* Autocannon: Marlin 40mm (For combat at long-extreme range), 3M-47 Gibka Anti-tank (for damage), Rapid fire(For additional AA).
* Anti air defense: Garpun or Type 730C (1st priority), Kashtan-M or Pantsir-ME (for anti aircraft defense), Sea RAM (for efficient anti missile defense)
* Helicopter: SV-22 or WZ-19 CAIC (for spotting enemy warships, with osprey being able to provide extra AA), MUH-1 (for offensive capabilities as well as providing extra AA defense), KA-58 (to enhance ASW).

## Advantages and disadvantages

### Advantages

* Comes equipped with powerful railguns.
* Reasonable durability for a destroyer.
* Satisfactory speed.

### Disadvantages

* Poor anti air defense but it features 3 anti air defense in the latest update to enhance the ship's AA defense.
* Lacks anti submarine weapons, but can be solved by arming the ship with the RUM-139 Swarmers or SUM-6 (however sacrificing overall offensive capability).
* Can only equip missiles in single slots.

## Trivia:

* The *Zumwalt* is the largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world and in the U.S. Navy (currently)
* The Zumwalt is often described as a "future battleship" herself.
* Players sometime call the ship "Zummy".
* This is confirmed as the top choice for taking part in damage tournament and it was one of the most chosen ships for custom championship
* The player Babyboi[Navy VietNam] is the MVP of an international championship hosted by Indonesian players on Indonesian navy day after using Zumwalt for almost every match, doing over 5M damage through many matches, he is also the one who did the most damage (it's 5 million, that's probably the world record).
* The Zumwalt is the main opponent of Velikiy for a good tier 3 premium ship, many people ask for a choice between them, but a fact that if you are a pro player, you will feel Zumwalt is super good (better than Velikiy even).
* On 7/1/2022, the player NSF NT or NT Gaming ( a youtuber ) did over 3M damage in an online match with Zumwalt, he clutched 1 vs 5 successfully, he did not finish the last target because the time runs out, but he was standing in front of a pretty high chance to win that if the time remains more.