The Navy’s Stealth Destroyers Are Getting a Serious Upgrade: 12 Hypersonic Missiles Each
Through a series of enhancements, the stealthy (but controversial) Zumwalts will get a new lease on life.
BY KYLE MIZOKAMIPUBLISHED: DEC 1, 2022
The U.S. Navy is eyeing a series of upgrades for its Zumwalt-class destroyers.
While the upgrades would be mostly under the hood, they would vastly improve the ships’ abilities to operate with the rest of the fleet.
Each of the three ships are also set to receive up to a dozen hypersonic missiles.
The U.S. Navy is planning to modernize three of its newest warships even further, giving them new capabilities that will enhance their ability to interoperate with other ships and planes and further protect themselves from attack. Specifically, the three Zumwalt-class destroyers, built with stealth in mind, could receive upgrades allowing them to take in share-and-receive data from the rest of the fleet, disable drones, and hunt submarines.
In a November 17 post on the U.S. government’s System Award Management website, the Navy is asking industry players for ideas about how to update the electronics on its Zumwalt-class destroyers. The upgrades, titled Zumwalt Enterprise Upgrade Solution, or ZEUS, will “improve supportability and interoperability of the Zumwalt destroyers by replacing Zumwalt-unique components and systems with analogous systems, which are common with other U.S. Navy surface combatants,” per the post.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a42098276/zumwalt-class-destroyers-hypersonic-missiles/
