US Navy Two Years Behind Schedule on Hypersonic Missile Installation for Zumwalt Destroyers
The U.S. Navy's plan to equip three Zumwalt-class destroyers with hypersonic missiles is two years behind schedule, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile program faces rising costs, with estimates ballooning from $31 billion for 262 missiles to $41 billion for 224 missiles. Technical challenges include unreliable ship power systems, excessive cabling removal during modifications, and production issues at Lockheed Martin, where the factory can only produce six or seven missiles annually instead of the desired 12. Additionally, the Navy and Army are not adequately coordinating on the joint CPS program, despite the Army developing a similar land-based version (LRHW). Missile flight testing has been pushed from 2025 to 2027. The Zumwalt class was reduced from 32 ships to three due to cost and capability concerns.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection