U.S. Navy Awards Lockheed Martin $1.36 Billion to Advance Hypersonic Strike Capability on Zumwalt Destroyers
The contract modification funds engineering, integration, and long-lead production work for the Conventional Prompt Strike program as USS Zumwalt prepares for live-fire testing following its January sea trials.
Overview
The U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin Space a $1.356 billion contract modification on March 31 for the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic weapon program, funding the transition from development to operational production for what will become the service’s first sea-based hypersonic strike capability. The award covers program management, engineering development, systems integration, long-lead materials procurement, advanced testing, and fabrication of specialized tooling across facilities in Colorado, California, Utah, Alabama, and several other states, with work scheduled to run through September 2032, according to Interesting Engineering.
The contract follows the completion of builder’s sea trials for USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) in January 2026, a milestone that validated the physical modifications needed to carry the weapon. Huntington Ingalls Industries confirmed the destroyer had successfully returned to sea after a refit that began in August 2023 at its Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
From Gun Ship to Hypersonic Strike Platform
The Zumwalt class has undergone a fundamental mission transformation. The Navy removed the ship’s two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems, which were rendered impractical after the Pentagon canceled the specialized Long Range Land Attack Projectile due to costs exceeding $800,000 per round, and replaced them with four 87-inch missile tubes. Each tube accommodates a triple-packed Advanced Payload Module canister, giving each destroyer a maximum loadout of 12 CPS missiles.
The CPS system shares its propulsion stack and Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) with the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program. After a cold-gas launch designed for both surface ship and submarine deployment, the booster accelerates the glide vehicle to hypersonic speeds exceeding Mach 5, at which point it maneuvers toward its target at a range exceeding 2,775 kilometers.
A Growing Contract Portfolio
The latest modification builds on a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Lockheed Martin in February 2023, which covered launcher systems, weapon control, all-up rounds, and integration work to link the missiles with the Zumwalt class. That earlier deal could expand to over $2.2 billion if all options are exercised. Combined with the new March 31 award, the Navy’s cumulative investment in CPS production and integration through Lockheed Martin now exceeds $2.5 billion.
The Navy intends to equip all three Zumwalt-class destroyers with CPS, including USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), at an estimated additional cost of roughly $452 million per ship. Virginia-class attack submarines are also planned to receive the capability later in the decade.
What Comes Next
With builder’s sea trials complete, USS Zumwalt now moves toward acceptance trials and live-fire testing of the CPS system. The Navy is targeting 2027 or 2028 for shipboard flight tests, a timeline that has slipped from an earlier goal of 2025 fielding. A successful end-to-end test conducted by the Navy in 2025 validated the cold-gas launch approach, but demonstrating the full kill chain from a moving warship remains the critical milestone ahead.
The CPS program sits at the center of the Pentagon’s broader push to field conventional hypersonic weapons across multiple services, a capability that China and Russia have already deployed in various forms. Whether the Zumwalt class, once criticized as the Navy’s most expensive and troubled surface combatant program, can deliver on its reinvented mission as a hypersonic strike platform will depend on the testing campaign that the March 31 contract is designed to fund.