Navy asks Lockheed Martin for launchers of hypersonic missiles aboard Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyers
WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy surface warfare experts are asking Lockheed Martin to build shipboard weapons launchers to enable the Navy Zumwalt-class destroyer to fire hypersonic missiles at a variety of high-priority and time-critical targets.
Officials of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office in Washington announced an $86.7 million contract to the Lockheed Martin Space segment in Littleton, Colo., for Advanced Payload Modules (APMs) for the Navy's three Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Firing hypersonic missiles
The APM enables the Zumwalt-class destroyer to fire the hypersonic Lockheed Martin Conventional Prompt Strike missile in packages of three. Each APM will hold three Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles, for a total of 12 missiles.
The Conventional Prompt Strike is a boost-glide hypersonic missile with a two stage solid rocket motor, a hypersonic glide body, and kinetic-energy warhead. A hypersonic projectile travels at speeds of at least five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour. The Lockheed Martin Space is the CPS prime systems integrator.
A hypersonic missile traveling at Mach 5 or faster doesn't need an explosive warhead; its kinetic energy alone is sufficient to destroy or disable nearly any target it hits.
Military leaders say they plan to launch Conventional Prompt Strike from Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines to strike valuable mobile targets. First deployment of the CPS is scheduled for as early as 2028 aboard Virginia-class attack submarines.
Surface ships and submarines
While the Advanced Payload Module is a hypersonic missile launcher for Zumwalt-class destroyers, the so-called Virginia Payload Module is the hypersonic missile launcher for Virginia-class attack submarines.
The three Zumwalt-class destroyers -- USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002) -- are multi-mission stealth ships with onboard computers and computer networking that focus on land attack, with secondary roles of surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare, and naval gunfire support.
The Zumwalt-class destroyer has a specially shaped hull and superstructure that scatters radar signals and gives the ship a much smaller radar cross section that it otherwise would have with a conventional design.
On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the work in Denver; Huntsville, Ala.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; Michoud, La.; Stennis, Miss.; and at various other locations, and should be finished in September 2027. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Space online at www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/space.html, or the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office at www.ssp.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
