Zumwalt-class destroyers used to be known as one of the most bizarre and promising things from another world, but their past two years have been a little different. These changes have the potential to change sea battles significantly. One of the reasons why these ships can be considered the most advanced surface warships is the Navy’s decision to arm them with hypersonic missile technology that includes CPS and IRCPS.
Behind in multi-mission warship building, Zumwalt-class, 155mm Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) for shore bombardment, stealth hull, and advanced sensors. But extremely costly precision-guided Long-Range Land Attack Projectiles (LRLAP) made the main guns too expensive, leaving space for combat strategy design innovation.
Navy began replacing 2023 the AGS forward turret and associated below-decks gear. Engineers replaced it with four huge vertical launch system tubes 87 inches in diameter. The tubes contain triple-stacked hypersonic missiles inside Advanced Payload Module canisters, allowing a ship to carry 12 guns on board at high speed.
This was not a simple conversion. This involved toughening bulkheads, creating room for specialized support systems, and dealing with the intense heat and stress of launching hypersonic missiles. So what is so revolutionary about the missiles?
Flying at Mach 5+ velocities and also spinning, hypersonic missiles are extremely difficult to intercept and destroy. The United States has already demonstrated its feasibility by showing that it tested the Hypersonic Glide Body to attack high-priority or time-sensitive targets with precision over 1,000 nautical miles away.
For the Zumwalt, this translates to being capable of shooting beyond the range of most legacy sensors. The high speed and maneuverability of weapons create literally very short response windows on targets, essentially isolating them from intercept.
Hypersonics differ from outmoded cruise or ballistic missiles in that they can fly curves, evading pyramids of defense and hitting high-payoff targets before targets themselves have a chance to know an attack is en route.
The Army and Navy are jointly developing the program from a common missile design to save time and money. Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or Dark Eagle, and Navy’s CPS/IRCPS are developed and tested in parallel to save time and achieve symmetric technological development.
Years of scientific research at places such as the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division made it all possible. There, scientists have experimented and confirmed everything from the early hypervelocity concepts to high-performance guidance systems and high-temperature materials. They have only one thing on their mind: to equip sailors with the best technology possible and place the Navy at the leading edge of defense and offense.
Strategically, this is a sea change for the Zumwalt-class. Rather than an expensive experiment whose value is in doubt, these ships will be the Navy’s gold standard long-range precision-strike capability. Because they are stealthy, sensor-rich, and hypersonic, they will be able to penetrate and strike high-value targets deep in contested space and bring U.S. deterrence into hard theaters.
As live-fire exercises become commonplace and readiness ebbs and flows with the necessity of deployment, there is little question that Zumwalt-class is standing on the brink of a new era. With cutting-edge sensors, low observability, and unmatched strike speed, these ships are about to become the focal point of naval supremacy for decades to come.