Lockheed Martin to move forward on developing hypersonic weapons for Navy submarines and surface warships

WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy weapons experts are asking Lockheed Martin Corp. to move forward with developing hypersonic missiles for submarines and surface warships under terms of an order announced Friday worth as much as $1 billion.

Officials of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office in Washington are asking the Lockheed Martin Space segment in Littleton, Colo., for program management, engineering, and systems integration for the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missile system.

CPS is a boost-glide hypersonic missile with a two-stage solid rocket motor, a hypersonic glide body, and kinetic-energy warhead. A hypersonic projectile travels at speeds of at least five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour. Lockheed Martin Space is the CPS prime systems integrator.

The order includes long lead materials and special tooling and equipment for CPS missile and launching production for Conventional Prompt Strike. Long-lead items either are difficult and time-consuming to obtain, and are funded early to keep overall production on schedule. Contracts to build the missiles and launchers will come later.

No explosives needed

A hypersonic missile traveling at Mach 5 or faster doesn't need an explosive warhead; its kinetic energy alone is sufficient to destroy or disable nearly any target it hits.

Military leaders say they plan to launch Conventional Prompt Strike from Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines to strike valuable, mobile, and time-critical targets. First deployment of the CPS is scheduled for as early as 2028 aboard Virginia-class attack submarines.

The Advanced Payload Module is a hypersonic missile launcher for Zumwalt-class destroyers, and the Virginia Payload Module is the hypersonic missile launcher for Virginia-class attack submarines.

The three Zumwalt-class destroyers -- USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002) -- are multi-mission stealth surface warships with onboard computers and computer networking that focus on land attack, with secondary roles of surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare, and naval gunfire support.

High-profile hypersonics

Conventional Prompt Strike perhaps is the U.S. military's most high-profile hypersonics research project. Earlier this year the Navy announced an $86.7 million contract to Lockheed Martin Space for Advanced Payload Modules (APMs) for the Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers.

The APM is to enable the Zumwalt-class destroyer to fire the hypersonic CPS in packages of three. Each APM will hold three Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles, for a total of 12 missiles aimed at a variety of high-priority and time-critical targets.

While the Advanced Payload Module is a hypersonic missile launcher for Zumwalt-class destroyers, the so-called Virginia Payload Module is the hypersonic missile launcher for Virginia-class attack submarines.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer has a specially shaped hull and superstructure that scatters radar signals and gives the ship a much smaller radar cross section that it otherwise would have with a conventional design.

On this order, Lockheed Martin will do the work in Denver; Huntsville, Ala.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; Titusville, Fla.; and other locations, and should be finished by August 2028. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Space at www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/space.html, or the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office at www.ssp.navy.mil.