Navy Preps to Fire Hypersonic Missiles From Stealthy Zumwalt Destroyer

Zumwalt: A Stealth Destroyer Armed with Hypersonic Missiles? The arrival of hypersonic weapons on board the Navy’s USS Zumwalt by 2025 will be a historic and significant development, as it will introduce a new “speed of attack” for the surface warship.

By traveling more than five times the speed of sound, the Navy’s now emerging Conventional Prompt Strike weapon will hold a new range of targets at risk from a wide range of locations.

The principal advantage of hypersonics is of course speed, an ability to strike and destroy an enemy target before a defender has any kind of a chance to intercept, defend against, or counterattack.

Conventional Warheads

Tomahawk missiles and harpoons can travel at high speeds with precision guidance systems, and newer Tomahawk variants can even track and destroy moving enemy targets.

However, while a Tomahawk can travel ranges as far as 900 miles at speeds of 550 miles per hour, a hypersonic weapon can travel exponentially faster and massively shorten any possible response time available for defenders.

SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 ship-fired interceptors also travel at high speeds as ship-defense weapons against incoming ballistic missiles and other threats. When integrated with Aegis Combat Systems, these interceptors can perform both ballistic missile defense as well as air and cruise missile defense.

There are also quite possibly some offensive uses for the SM-6 when used with a networked, beyond-the-horizon relay system or network.

The real question with ship-fired hypersonics likely relates to guidance technology and potential dual use as both an offensive and defensive weapon.