First Zumwalt to Wrap Missile Tube Install This Year, Michael Monsoor to Deploy to WESTPAC

January 15, 2025 7:37 PM - Updated: January 16, 2025 11:16 AM
USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) floated from a drydock at Ingalls Shipbuilding on Dec. 6, 2024. HII Photo

The following post has been updated with details on USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001). 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The first at-sea U.S. platform to field the Pentagon’s hypersonic missile will be ready for testing at the end of the year, according to the program manager.

USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is back in the water after the installation of four missile tubes that will eventually carry the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon, program manager Capt. Clint Lawler said on Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association national symposium.

The 16,000-ton destroyer has been at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., since 2023 undergoing the modernization to replace its forward 155mm gun mount with the tubes that will field three missiles a piece for a total of up to 12.

Starting last year, workers at the shipyard removed the gun and then scooped out the magazine and loading system that went down several decks into the bow.

Workers then filled the void with new decks and systems to wrap around the four 87-inch missile tubes. Zumwalt’s rear gun mount was left intact, complete with auto-loader systems and magazines.

The future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) is also at Ingalls undergoing its combat system activation that will roll into the installation of the missile tubes.

“We’ve extended the combat system aggravation period by two years to accomplish this installation,” Lawler said.
“The CPS work was placed on contract in August and we dry-docked the ship this past Sunday.”

The second Zumwalt, USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), completed its combat system activation this year and is set to deploy to the Western Pacific later this year. The destroyer is due to arrive at Ingalls at 2026, Lawler said.

The Zumwalt-class destroyers were developed in the 2000s as a stealthy platform to do close-in fire support for ashore forces. The original plan for almost 30 ships was reduced to three as the Navy backed off mass producing the platform in favor of the Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer program. Ammunition for the three ships’ 155mm gun systems was deemed unaffordable and the Navy elected not to find a new round for the weapons.

In 2022, then Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said the ships would be the first Navy platform to field the joint hypersonic weapon system.

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy’s director of strategic programs, told USNI News in November that Zumwalt could field the weapon as early as 2026.

“The missile – the all-up round – we’re continuing forward with all that testing because the missile has to be what we call in-air launched because it’s so large. It’s not like any other type of missile. You don’t light this thing off inside,” he said at the time.

The Virginia Payload Module on the Block V Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine will be the second platform to field CPS.

Sam LaGrone

Sam LaGrone

Sam LaGrone is the editor of USNI News. He has covered legislation, acquisition and operations for the Sea Services since 2009 and spent time underway with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Canadian Navy.
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