Submarine-Launched Hypersonic Missiles Expected by 2028

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By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

An ability to fire a lethal long-range missile traveling more than five times the speed of sound from beneath the surface of the ocean would present unparalleled problems for an enemy under attack, as the launch point might be virtually undetectable and the speed of flight so much that the approaching weapon simply couldn’t be tracked in time.

This attack scenario describes the US Navy’s vision for submarine-launched hypersonic flight, a now-in-development technology expected to be ready by 2028, according to comments to Congressional lawmakers from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday.

Hypersonic Weapons

“We will continue to make investments in hypersonic capability and plan to have a hypersonic weapon launched from a submerged submarine by 2028. We are meeting every benchmark in that program and we doubled the Navy’s funding for hypersonics last year,” Gilday told members of the Senate Armed Service Committee.

Hypersonic weapons are essentially “here” for the US military which can already fire both ground and air launched hypersonics. As part of this integrated plan, the Navy is preparing to deck-launch hypersonic projectiles from service warships, a development likely to change the paradigm for surface-to-surface and surface-to-land attack. 

As part of this effort the Navy is now testing new ship-deck launcher systems capable of firing hypersonic weapons. An ability to successfully launch hypersonic projectiles from Vertical Launch Tubes built into a submarine from beneath the surface, however, is yet another breakthrough step.