An Early Look at the U.S. Navy's New Tech-Heavy Destroyer

In the 19th century, Captain Alfred Thayer, a serving Naval officer as well as a strategist, wrote a series of books that arguably revolutionized the way governments and their militaries thought about sea power. But one constant over the subsequent century-plus since Mahan's writings gained influence: the impact of leading-edge technology and design.

So it is that the U.S. Navy has incorporated a myriad of new technologies to build what it calls "the centerpiece of seapower for the next 50 years:" the next-generation Zumwalt-class destroyer, known as DDG 1000, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman recently visited defense giant Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems facility in Portsmouth, R.I. for a behind-the-scenes look at the DDG 1000 and the ways it is expected to break new ground in naval warfare.

Click here to read the related story on the U.S. Navy's next-generation destroyer, the DDG 1000, and click here to check out the entire Road Trip 2010 package.