In what initially seemed like an unfortunate financial decision, the U.S. Navy is now repurposing a once expensive mistake to advance in the military arms race. The Zumwalt-class warships, once criticized for their problematic financial and operational performance, are now being outfitted with cutting-edge technology designed to boost the Navy’s offensive capabilities. This technology includes the first shipborne hypersonic weapon, a bold step toward modernizing and enhancing America’s naval firepower.
The Zumwalt-class, named after former chief of naval operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, is a class of guided missile destroyers that came into service in the U.S. Navy back in 2016. However, these vessels made headlines primarily for their enormous costs and technical issues, rather than for their capacities. At a whopping budget of over $22 billion for just three ships, these destroyers were initially seen as a huge and expensive blunder.
Despite the negative feedback, the U.S. Navy persisted with further development of the Zumwalt-class warships. In time, it turned out that their unique design and technology were ideal for housing the latest weaponry intended by the military. They were capable of accommodating new technology, such as railguns and laser weapon systems, which became game changers for these three vessels.
The game-changer moment happened recently when the U.S. Navy decided to outfit the of them with the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB), the first shipborne hypersonic weapon. Hypersonic technology is not new to the military world, represented in aircraft and missile systems moving at least five times faster than the speed of sound (Mach 5). This addition drastically advances the Zumwalt-class ships’ offensive capacities while confirming its potential as a versatile weapons platform.
The strategy to use these warships as testing platforms for hypersonic weapons came from the desperate need to compete in the global military arms race. Adversaries including China and Russia have surged ahead in the development and deployment of hypersonic weapons, raising the stakes for the U.S to catch up. Therefore, the decision to utilize the Zumwalt’s underutilized capabilities and adapt it as a launch pad for this new technology could be seen as an attempt to level the playing field.
Unlike traditional ballistic missiles, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body’s trajectory makes it nearly impossible for enemy systems to intercept, giving the U.S Navy an upper hand in potential combat situations. It’s worth remembering that the initial issues surrounding the Zumwalt-class’ high cost and underperformance primarily were due to its ambitious and innovative aspects. Its unique design, stealth technology, and cutting-edge automation were all initially problematic yet eventually found their place in the naval armada as the ideal platform for the hypersonic weapon system.
While the inclusion of hypersonic weapon systems might appear to some as an attempt to justify the Zumwalt-class’ high development cost, the decision does hold strategic value from a military perspective. By repurposing these ships
