Navy asks Draper Lab for Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic inertial, GPS, and electro-optical guidance
WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy strategic weapons experts needed guidance and control for future ship- and submarine-launched hypersonic missiles designed to attack the enemy's valuable mobile systems. They found a solution from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass.
Officials of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office in Washington announced a $308.3 million contract to Draper Lab on 14 March for Conventional Prompt Strike inertial navigation measurement and analysis, flight-testing support, Global Positioning System applications and electro optical alternate navigation, guidance, and reentry subsystems.
Sea-launched hypersonic missile
The hypersonic Lockheed Martin Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system 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, and time-critical targets. First deployment of the CPS is scheduled for as early as 2028 aboard Virginia-class attack submarines.
The Advanced Payload Module is a hypersonic missile launcher for Zumwalt-class destroyers, and the Virginia Payload Module is the hypersonic missile launcher for Virginia-class attack submarines.
Surface warship launchers
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.
Draper Lab is a longtime supplier of navigation and guidance systems for U.S. strategic weapons. The company designs the inertial and celestial guidance systems for the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile, and is developing the Trident II's next-generation guidance system. The company also may take part in the future Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, which will replace the Minuteman III.
The Navy's Trident II D5 nuclear missiles are designed for launch from Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, from the Navy's future Columbia-class submarine, and from British Royal Navy Vanguard-class ballistic-missile submarines.
On this contract, Draper Lab will do the work in Cambridge, Mass.; Washington; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Huntsville, Ala., and should be finished by September 2029. For more information contact the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory online at www.draper.com, 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.
