U.S. Navy To Strengthen Its Fleet With 1st Ship Capable Of Launching Hypersonic Missiles

The U.S. Navy is giving its Zumwalt-class destroyer a major upgrade by turning it into the first Navy ship capable of launching hypersonic missiles.

This retrofit taking place at Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, replaces the Zumwalt’s old gun turrets with new missile tubes.

Once the work is finished, the USS Zumwalt and its two sister ships will be able to conduct precision strikes over long distances at speeds far beyond current weapons capabilities.

The new system, known as the Conventional Prompt Strike is a joint effort between the U.S. Navy and Army.

The missiles, which launch like ballistic missiles, will release a hypersonic glide vehicle that travels at speeds seven to eight times faster than the speed of sound.

These hypersonic weapons will be difficult to intercept due to their high speed and manoeuvrability, giving the Navy a great advantage.

Each Zumwalt-class destroyer will carry four missile tubes, each holding three hypersonic missiles, meaning the ship will be armed with 12 hypersonic weapons in total.

This upgrade aims to make the Zumwalt-class ships more useful after years of criticism. Originally, the Zumwalt was designed to carry Advanced Gun Systems that would fire rocket-assisted projectiles to support Marines landing on shore.

However, this system was scrapped because the projectiles cost between $800,000 and $1 million each, making them too expensive to use effectively.

Despite its troubled past, the Zumwalt remains one of the most technologically advanced warships in the Navy, featuring automated fire and damage control systems, electric propulsion, stealthy radar-evading designs, a composite deckhouse that hides radar and sensors and a wave-piercing hull.

Critics have long considered the Zumwalt-class destroyers an expensive mistake, especially since they cost $7.5 billion to develop. However, with the new hypersonic missile capability, the Navy hopes to turn this blunder into a victory by making the Zumwalt more effective in modern warfare.

Hypersonic weapons will allow the Zumwalt to strike targets at distances of thousands of kilometres, well beyond the reach of most enemy missiles and with no effective defense against them.

The Navy believes this makes the Zumwalt a key asset for the U.S. military.

In August 2023, the Zumwalt arrived at the Pascagoula shipyard, where it was taken out of the water for the retrofit. The ship is expected to be undocked soon, with work scheduled for completion by 2025.

Once finished, the Zumwalt-class destroyers will be ready for the next round of tests, and the hypersonic missile system could be operational as early as 2027 or 2028.

While the hypersonic missile system is being developed, the U.S. military is facing pressure to speed up its production. China and Russia have already made advancements in hypersonic weapons, and recent tests by both countries have put the U.S. on alert.

Last year, documents leaked by former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira revealed that China had tested a new intermediate-range hypersonic weapon, the DF-27, confirming concerns about foreign hypersonic developments.

The price of the U.S. hypersonic missile system is steep. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the cost of acquiring and maintaining 300 missiles over 20 years is nearly $18 billion.

Critics argue that the cost may not justify the returns, with one defense analyst pointing out that the price of each missile could buy more than a dozen tanks.

However, retired Navy Rear Admiral Ray Spicer, who is the CEO of the U.S. Naval Institutes says that hypersonic missiles are necessary because they offer unmatched range and speed, making them harder to counter than conventional missiles.

“The adversary has them. We never want to be outdone,” said Spicer, while discussing the importance of maintaining military superiority.

The Pentagon sees the development of hypersonic weapons as essential to the national security.

The principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies, James Weber, said that these weapons strengthen integrated deterrence and maintain technological superiority.

Once completed, the retrofit will boost the Zumwalt-class destroyers’ capabilities by transforming them into hypersonic platforms. The ships will not only be faster and more powerful but will also be able to perform strikes that were previously impossible with older missile systems.

References: AP News, Interesting Engineering

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