BATH, Maine – Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert is slated to tour the first of the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyers in Bath, Maine.
Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King will accompany Greenert on the tour at Bath Iron Works on Wednesday. The 610-foot warship will be the first electric-drive surface combatant built for the Navy since the 1940s. The Zumwalt’s two main generators and two auxiliary units can produce 78 megawatts, enough electricity for about 10,000 homes.
The Zumwalt’s pricetag of more than $3.5 billion almost caused the Navy to scuttle the program. Instead it reduced the number of ships from more than 30 to three.
Shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works fired up one of the main turbines aboard the destroyer in September.
