First hypersonic weapon on a US warship being installed in Pascagoula

Mississippi Today

https://mississippitoday.org/2024/12/04/pascagoula-warship-first-hypersonic-weapon/

The U.S. Navy is transforming a costly flub into a potent weapon with the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, which is being retrofitted aboard the first of its three stealthy destroyers. The USS Zumwalt is at a Mississippi shipyard where workers have installed missile tubes that replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive. Once the system is complete, the Zumwalt will provide a platform for conducting fast, precision strikes from greater distances, adding to the usefulness of the warship. The U.S. has had several types of hypersonic weapons in development for the past two decades, but recent tests by both Russia and China have added pressure to the U.S. military to hasten their production. Hypersonic weapons travel beyond Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, with added maneuverability making them harder to shoot down.

First U.S. Warship Fitted for Hypersonic Missiles Back in the Water

U.S. Naval Institute 

https://news.usni.org/2024/12/06/first-u-s-warship-fitted-for-hypersonic-missiles-back-in-the-water

The first guided-missile destroyer fitted for conventional hypersonic missiles is back in the water after more than a year of modifications. Ingalls Shipbuilding undocked USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) and the ship is now pierside at the Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard, HII announced in a Friday statement. “The undocking marked the completion of significant modernization work at Ingalls since the ship arrived at the Pascagoula shipyard in August 2023,” reads the statement from HII. “Shortly after its arrival, the ship was put back on land in order to receive technology upgrades including the integration of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) weapon system. The Ingalls team also replaced the original twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems on the destroyers with new missile tubes.” Zumwalt and the other two ships in the class will be the Navy’s first at-sea platforms to field the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) missile – a weapon designed to strike targets thousands of miles away with no warning.