Zumwalt Class Destroyer

choi

Eric Talmadge, US Navy Hopes Stealth Ship Answers a Rising China. Associated Press, June 4, 2012.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-navy-ho ... hina-065329046.html
(Zumwalt class destroyer: a wave-piercing hull that leaves almost no wake, electric drive propulsion, and to be equipped with an electromagnetic railgun)

Note:
(a) Zumwalt class destroyer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt_class_destroyer
(The lead ship will be named Zumwalt [1920-2000] for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, and carries the hull number DDG-1000; section 3.2 Tumblehome wave piercing hull: [The] 21st century tumblehome is being reintroduced to reduce the radar return of the hull)
(i) elmo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmo
(ii) The English, German, Italian given name for a male is probably from a Germanic name derived from helm ‘helmet’, ‘protection.’

(b) For "a wave-piercing hull" in the report, see tumblehome.
(i) tumblehome (n; from tumble, to slope inward (obsolete)): "the inward curve of a ship's topsides"
American Heritage Dictionary (see (c)(i))
http://www.answers.com/topic/tumblehome-1  
(ii) tumblehome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblehome
(Expressed more technically, it is present when the beam at the uppermost deck is less than the maximum beam of the vessel; section 1 Origins)
(iii) Beam (nautical)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_(nautical)
(The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point)

(c) The report says "the program basically fell in on itself."
(i) fall in (vi): "To sink inward; cave in <The roof of the old barn fell in>"
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed, Houghton Mifflin, 2000 (updated 2009)
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fall
(ii) fall in on someone or something: "to cave in on someone or something; to collapse on someone or something. <The roof of the mine fell in on the workers> <The ceiling fell in on the diners>"
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. 2002.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fall+in+on
(d) The fatal flaw, to critics, of Zumwalt is lack of missile defense (namely Aegis) in this class. Why? I do not know.