WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy strategic weapons experts are asking the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., for guidance systems research for submarine-launch ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons.
Officials of the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs in Washington announced a $133.5 million order to Draper on Friday to provide research into enabling technologies for guidance systems for the Common Missile Compartment for future U.S. Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines and United Kingdom Dreadnought-class missile submarines.
Draper also will provide specialized technical knowledge and support for hypersonic guidance, navigation. and control application; and support Navy guidance, navigation and control systems for hypersonic flight experiments.
The U.S. Navy is pursuing a Prompt Global Strike project to develop systems to deliver precision-guided conventional weapons anywhere in the world within one hour of launch -- similar to a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Prompt Global Strike hypersonic munitions are expected to be carried aboard the future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, as well as aboard the United Kingdom Dreadnought-class missile submarine, the U.S. Virginia-class fast attack submarine, the U.S. Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyer, as well as from other platforms.
Prompt Global Strike hypersonic weapons could enable the U.S. to respond quickly to emerging enemy threats, either with conventional or nuclear weapons payloads.
On this order Draper will do the work in Cambridge, Mass., and in El Segundo, Calif., and should be finished by September 2021. For more information contact Draper online at www.draper.com, or the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office at www.ssp.navy.mil.
