The guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) arrived in Mississippi on 19 August 2023 to begin a two-year process to install hypersonic missile tubes.
The upgrades will ensure Zumwalt remains one of the most technologically advanced and lethal ships in the US Navy.
The 16,000-ton warship was taken into Ingalls Shipbuilding so that the existing twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems can be removed and replaced with four 87-inch missile tubes.
The tubes will each hold three Common Hypersonic Glide Bodies (C-HGB) – hypersonic missiles being developed jointly between the US Army and the Navy – for a total of 12 missiles on the ship.
The C-HGB is part of a Department of Defense effort to field multiple conventional prompt strike platforms that can strike targets anywhere in the world with no warning.
The Navy also plans to upgrade USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) at Ingalls.
Monsoor is currently in San Diego and LBJ is currently at the yard undergoing combat system installation and activation.
The Navy wants the weapons installed and the destroyer ready to deploy by 2025.
