For years, the U.S. Navy has been hard at work seeking to salvage the design of the futuristic Zumwalt destroyers. With a hefty price tag of $7.5 billion, the destroyers were meant to replace the Arleigh-Burke class destroyers.
The design was eventually abandoned, though the three finished destroyers are still operational and highly advanced. Now, the Navy is on the verge of turning these ships into hypersonic heavyweights.
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Zumwalts have an unconventional design, meant to minimize radar signatures, and even have electric propulsion. They can also fire munitions like the standard missile in their vertical launchers, but were also designed with 155mm artillery guns at the front of the ship to support land forces. Unfortunately, the price per pound of those guns was close to $1 million, and they were never operational.
These ships were eventually used as testing platforms for new innovations, until now. The Navy wants to innovate with them even further.
At a Huntington Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi, the Navy has begun to replace the artillery guns with a new launching system for the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon. When it’s all said and done, each Zumwalt-class destroyer will be able to hold 12 CPS missiles.
CPS is one of the hypersonic missiles the U.S. is currently developing. The Navy and Army have both conducted numerous land-based tests. Now, the Navy says it is on track to start testing these missiles on Zumwalts in 2027 or 2028.
Hypersonic weapons are missiles that can travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, without losing maneuverability. This is an important distinction, because ballistic missiles can travel much faster than the speed of sound, but they take a predictable path and can be easier to intercept.
A conventional prompt strike missile is made up of different components, but on the end of the weapon is a hypersonic glide vehicle that will do the maneuvering and actually impact the target. Retrofitting Zumwalts with hypersonic weapons like CPS is enough for one defense analyst at the Hudson Institute to say the Navy is taking victory from the jaws of defeat.
Russia claims to have hypersonic weapons, but Ukraine was able to counter them with U.S. supplied weaponry, including Patriot batteries. China does have hypersonic missiles, and the Pentagon confirmed as much according to documents leaked online by Jack Texeira.
Critics say hypersonic missiles are too expensive, and only offer a way to hit something far away really fast. The Congressional Budget Office says it will cost about $18 billion to buy 300 CPS weapons and maintain them for 20 years.
On the other hand, supporters say the cost of not developing hypersonic weapons could be steeper, arguing that if adversaries have them, the U.S. should too.
