Lockheed Martin to have hypersonic missile launcher ready for flight testing by 2024
Lockheed Martin plans to have a ship-based hypersonic missile launcher for the Navy’s Zumwalt Class Destroyer, shown above, ready for flight testing by 2024. [STOCK IMAGE]
Fresh off being awarded the U.S. Navy’s lucrative hypersonic missile contract, Lockheed Martin plans to have a ship-based hypersonic missile launcher ready for flight testing by 2024.
Lockheed plans to develop the launcher for the Zumwalt-class destroyer — the Navy’s advanced stealth destroyer that was commissioned in 2016. The Navy plans to have its three Zumwalt ships retrofitted into sea-based hypersonic missile platforms under its Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic program.
Design considerations for the launcher will require it to use pressurized air to shoot a hypersonic weapon to a height where the exhaust plume clears the deck of the ship and doesn’t roast anything beneath it.
Lockheed was awarded the Navy’s $1.2 billion hypersonic missile contract on Feb. 17, which calls for developing hypersonic launchers and the missile system itself for the Navy and integrating them with the Zumwalt destroyers. The contract can expand to $2.2 billion if all options are exercised.
Ingalls Shipbuilding was awarded a separate contract to retrofit the Zumwalt-class ships and expects to have that work done by 2025.
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