USNI News
CNO: Hypersonic Weapons at Sea to Premiere on Zumwalt Destroyers in 2025
April 28, 2021 5:39 PM
Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) leads a formation including the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62), USS Spruance (DDG-111), USS Pinckney (DDG-91) and USS Kidd (DDG-100), and the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS-4) during U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP) on April 21, 2021. US Navy Photo
The Navy is set to debut its first at-sea hypersonic missiles aboard one of the service’s three Zumwalt-class destroyers in four years, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said on Tuesday.
This would be two fewer submarines than currently make up the Ohio-class submarine fleet.
Here s What You Need to Remember: These factors point to the key issue of consistent, fluid mission maintenance and deployment longevity; given that the Columbias are expected to serve throughout most of the remainder of this century, careful planning and thorough consideration must be given to maintaining them for decades into the future.
The Navy is confident that its anticipated fleet of twelve new nuclear-armed Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines will easily succeed in fulfilling and even building upon the strategic deterrence missions now performed by the service’s aging fleet of fourteen Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines.
That is, by 2025.
Late last year, the head of the U.S. Navy s Strategic Systems Programs, Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe said that the U.S. Navy is on track to field a hypersonic missile on its submarine fleet by 2025. The weapons, which will be used as a conventional prompt strike (CPS) alternative to long-range nuclear weapons has been called a high priority for the Navy.
Wolfe who spoke at the Naval Submarine League annual symposium last month, as reported by USNI News, said that challenges remain. To meet the goal, the U.S. military along with government agencies and private industry, must take all the successes we’ve had in the research and development of flight testing, and how do we start to productionize that, and how do we transition that into a military capability that we can give to the Army – because we’re kind of doing this collaboratively with the Army – for what they want to do for their first all-up round capability in about the 2023 timeframe, and then how do w
By
Paul McLeary on January 14, 2021 at 1:59 PM
USS Zumwalt sails with an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship
WASHINGTON: The Navy plans to install hypersonic missiles on its troublesome Zumwalt destroyers, after Congress gave them the green light to start studying the move in the 2021 budget.
Multiple Navy officials said this week they’re diving into the effort, even though the USS Zumwalt, the first of the three-ship class, has yet to deploy despite being christened in 2016.
The timeline for the Conventional Prompt Strike Weapon to be fitted onto the ship isn’t clear, but first the service needs to finish testing it’s own version of the missile, then deliver a report to the Hill.