US Navy awards $1.2 billion contract for hypersonic missiles

News, US February 22, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The U.S. Navy has awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Lockheed Martin for delivering the first sea-based hypersonic missiles to be integrated into the U.S. Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyers. The missile is expected to be a hypersonic boost-glide weapon system that enables long-range missile flight at speeds greater than Mach 5.

So far, the U.S. Air Force is the closest to integrating hypersonic missiles into its arsenal. The U.S. Navy has been working to integrate hypersonic weapons into its modern warships under the Conventional Prompt Strike program.

According to a statement released by Lockheed Martin, the contract calls for the company to provide the Navy with launcher systems, weapon control, all-up rounds, and integration work to link the missiles with the Zumwalt destroyers.

The company has been working since the mid-2000s to provide such systems to the U.S. Navy. Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s Hypersonic Strike Weapon Systems Steve Layne said that “Early design work is already underway. Our team looks forward to supporting the warfighter by providing more options to further protect America at sea.”

The Defense Department announced that the contract also covers engineering development, systems integration, long lead material, and special tooling and equipment in support of missile

A hypersonic missile can travel faster than five times the speed of sound and it is highly maneuverable. This combination would allow additional stealth and mobility for the Zumwalt-class destroyer as it would become America’s first sea-based hypersonic weapons carrier ship.

The contract comes as the United States and its global rivals are in a race to develop better and more accurate hypersonic weapons, which travel in the upper atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound. Russia and China already possess advanced hypersonic missiles capable of carrying out nuclear strikes while the U.S. is rapidly catching up with its rivals.

^{Artist rendering of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), the result of a partnership between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force Research Lab, Lockheed Martin, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. (Image Credit: Lockheed Martin/DARPA)}

All major U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, General Atomic, and Raytheon Technologies are working to develop their own versions of hypersonic weapons in order to meet the increasing demand of the U.S. Department of Defense. A hypersonic glide vehicle is deployed into the upper atmosphere through a rocket. Such vehicles can travel at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, which is about 6,200 kilometers per hour.

The U.S. Air Force has managed to conduct several successful tests with the hypersonic missiles under its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program. In October 2022, Pentagon also confirmed a successful test for land-based hypersonic missiles