28 June 2022

US Navy funding for Zumwalt CPS meets only ‘fraction' of overall need, programme official says

by Michael Fabey

The US Navy will need to provide substantially more funding to incorporate a hypersonic missile system on Zumwalt-class destroyers. (US Navy)

The US Navy (USN) will need to substantially increase the amount of future funding to incorporate the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic weapon system in its DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers, according to a senior programme official.

“The [Zumwalt] programme manager … stated that the funding provided constitutes a fraction of the total expected funding necessary for complete CPS integration,” the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the major Pentagon programmes annual report.

“Integration of the CPS weapon system across all three ships was estimated in June 2021 at approximately USD900 million,” the GAO said in the report released on 8 June 2022. “The programme currently has USD15 million in funding to begin CPS incorporation design efforts and finalise requirements, and requested over USD100 million in fiscal year (FY) 2022.”

As noted by the GAO, the navy plans to install CPS on the DDG 1000 USS Zumwalt in FY 2024, and on the other ships during their first planned dry-docking maintenance periods. The first live demonstration of a hypersonic weapon from the DDG 1000 is scheduled for FY 2025.

“One of the primary engineering efforts to incorporate CPS is to design a launching system that enables a cold-launch missile, meaning that the missile is ejected from the ship before its rocket motor ignites. The DDG 1000 class would be the first surface ship that uses cold-launch missile technology. Design efforts are also required to remove the existing Advanced Gun System (AGS) turrets and replace them with the CPS payload launcher system that will house the CPS missiles,” the GAO reported.

The US Navy (USN) will need to substantially increase the amount of future funding to incorporate th...

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