The Zumwalt Class stealth destroyers will be the first US warship to have long-range hypersonic weapons installed. USNI News reports that the new weapons will be installed on the destroyers USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) and USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) during an upcoming repair period at Ingalls Shipbuilding.
For the last six years, USS Zumwalt has been a destroyer without a primary weapons system. Commissioned in 2016, the ship was the latest and greatest, most high-tech destroyer in the fleet. At a cost of around $4 billion dollars, it is also the most expensive destroyer ever built.
The ship had two primary guns, 155 mm Advanced Gun System howitzers, intended to support ground forces in land attacks. These guns fired a Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP), a GPS guided round with a range of 60 nautical miles. Shortly before delivery, however, the Navy realized that the cost of each LRLAP round had soared to approaching $1 million each. The LRLAP program was canceled and the new destroyer became a ship with guns but no ammunition.
The Navy will now remove the two 155mm Advanced Gun System mounts aboard each ship to install tubes that would accommodate the Vertical Launch System for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB). The new hypersonic weapons are believed to have a range of well over one thousand miles and to travel at a speed of Mach 5.
I find a lot of information about the –ultimate– range and huge velocity of the C-HGB (“impressive,” as Darth Vader might say) but nothing about the –minimum– range. I wonder: will this weapon be able to engage at relatively low ranges covered by traditional 155mm etc.?