USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) fired its first missile as part of a weapons system test off the coast of California, the Navy announced on Monday.
The service in a news release said the destroyer used its MK 57 Vertical Launching System to fire a Standard Missile-2 on Oct. 13. The test took place at the Point Mugu sea test range off the coast of California.
“Today’s successful test not only demonstrates the ship’s capability to fire missiles and conduct self-defense, it is also a significant step toward more advanced combat system testing and operations for our Navy’s most technically innovative warship,” Capt. Matt Schroeder, the program manager for DDG-1000, said in a statement.
“The USS Zumwalt crew and Surface Development Squadron One are working hand-in-hand with the acquisition community to advance this ship’s operational capability,” Schroeder added.
Though the ship was commissioned in a 2016 ceremony on the East Coast, it did not have its combat system installed until it sailed around to its homeport of San Diego. Following combat system installation and activation, Zumwalt officially delivered to the Navy earlier this year, USNI News previously reported.
The first of three in the class, Zumwalt is slated to achieve initial operational capability in 2021, according to the news release.
The 16,000-ton destroyer is in the process of being optimized from its original mission to provide naval fire support to units ashore to a new focus as an anti-ship blue-water surface combatant.
