Congress Pushes Navy To Add Hypersonic Missiles To Its Stealthy Destroyers
The move could alter the Navy's timeline for deploying hypersonic weapons and it could lead to big changes for its Zumwalt class destroyers.
By Joseph TrevithickJune 22, 2020
The War Zone
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Legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives are looking to direct the U.S. Navy to start working on arming its Zumwalt class stealthy destroyers with the new Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missile within the next six months or so. As it stands now, the service only plans to integrate this weapon on its future Block V Virginia class submarines and the four Ohio class submarines configured as guided missile submarines, or SSGNs. This push in Congress could lead to a major shift in plans for these missiles and might finally lead to the elimination of the 155mm Advanced Gun Systems on the Zumwalts, also referred as the DDG-1000 class, for which there is no ammunition available at present.
The House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee wants to include the provision to add the Conventional Prompt Strike missiles, which you can read about in more detail in this past War Zone piece, to the Zumwalts in the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act, for the 2021 Fiscal Year. On June 21, 2020, this subcommittee publicly released the text of this and other sections that it is hoping to make part of the final NDAA.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/34255/congress-pushes-navy-to-add-hypersonic-missiles-to-its-stealthy-destroyers
