The Zumwalt-class destroyers were designed to rewrite the playbook on surface warfare, but the script never fit the stage. Now the Navy is giving the three ships an even clearer mandate: to carry a small, brutally time-sensitive set of hypersonic weapons that can reach well beyond what traditional ship-launched missiles were intended to threaten.
The pivot is as much a physical process as it is a conceptual one. At an SNA 2026 panel sponsored by NAVSEA, Zumwalt program manager Capt. Clint Lawler discussed how USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is coming out of a multi-year modernization period with its advanced payload modules declared complete in November 2025. The modernization has stripped the ship of its original centerpiece: both 155mm Advanced Gun Systems. The forward turret infrastructure has been completely excised to accommodate hypersonic launcher installations, while the second gun position has been internally stripped to reclaim space for other purposes.
This hard reset is because the original purpose of the class, precise and high-volume naval gunfire near shore, was rendered obsolete by the economic unviability of specialized ammunition. With the guns essentially orphaned, the characteristics of the ships changed from “fire support” to “space, power, and stealth.” These are characteristics that have aged well. A stealthy tumblehome design, high levels of automation, and an integrated power architecture originally intended to support future sensors and directed energy capabilities have left the ships with margin precisely what new payloads consume.
The new payload is the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), which is part of a larger U.S. strategy to develop conventionally armed hypersonic missiles that require precision over area impact. The current strategy focuses on commonality: the Navy’s CPS and the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon share a Common Hypersonic Glide Body. In its CPS variant, a two-stage booster propels the glide vehicle to the edge of the atmosphere, where it separates and maneuvers at hypersonic velocity, which quickly reduces warning times and makes intercepts more difficult.
On Zumwalt, the top line is straightforward: 12 CPS missiles per ship, packed forward where the main gun used to reside. The Navy has characterized the basing of the Zumwalt modules as a risk reduction step toward submarine integration, with the Zumwalt modules being very similar to the cells that will be used in future Block V Virginia-class submarines. In other words, the Zumwalt destroyer will serve as both a combat platform and a very large test bed that can reveal problems with integration early on.
These are just a few of the realities that quickly make the “hypersonic destroyer” idea into a math problem. Even if all three ships are loaded to capacity, that’s 36 rounds, and that’s enough to count for something, but not so much that one can afford to be careless with. Retired Rear Adm. Joe Sestak, who once led a carrier strike group, summed up the balance between capability and capacity: “I think it’s a good step. I think it is. Because these hypersonic missiles [no country has] a defense against them,” but also recognizing the need for redundancy in a situation where “the network is going to go down.”
The Navy is also developing the logistics necessary for the use of such weapons. Plans for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam would focus hypersonic-capable ships and submarines on Hawaii, along with construction and electrical modernization at several Pearl Harbor wharves and dry docks to meet the needs of Zumwalt hull designs and an expanded submarine presence.
As far as Zumwalt itself is concerned, the immediate narrative is less about the cinematic “Mach” numbers and more about the discipline of integration: returning a troubled, high-tech ship to the sea with a weapon that will only work if the ship’s sensors, datalinks, combat system, and support structure are all equally modern. The ships may never escape their small fleet size, but with CPS on board, it no longer sails as a future concept searching for a mission.
