The navy decided back in 2016 not to buy
any ammunition for those guns due to
ballooning costs, rendering them
effectively dead weight and prompting
discussions about the possibility of
installing other weapons in their place. Naval news first reported this new
schedule information the navy's budget
request for the 2022 fiscal year
released earlier this year had already
revealed that the service hopes to have
some level of operational capability to
launch IRCPS missiles from its Zumwalt-class ships by the end of 2025.
Chief of naval operations admiral Mike Gilday had previously confirmed the
basic plan for adding hypersonic
missiles to these destroyers which are
also referred to as DDG one thousands
after the hull number of the lead ship USS Zumwalt. During the talk at an event
hosted by the center for strategic and
budgetary assessments think tank in
april. The DDG-1000 dry Docking Selected Restricted Availability (DSRA) will begin
in FY 2024, Lieutenant Louis Aldridge a
spokesperson for the navy's office of
the chief of information told naval news.
The navy began engineering planning
efforts to accommodate integration of CPS on zumwalt-class destroyers which
includes removal of advanced gun system
mounts and installation of advanced
payload module launcher technology. The navy has commissioned two
zumwalt-class destroyers in service the USS Zumwalt and the USS Michael Monsoor. The third ship in the class the future USS Lyndon B Johnson is still in the
process of being fitted out.
Lieutenant Aldridge said that the ircps
launch systems would only occupy spaces
previously occupied by the Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) and that there are no plans
to add any additional Vertical Launch System (VLS) sells to the Zumwolt class
destroyers. The DDG-1000s each have 80 MK-57 VLS launch
cells.
At present these cells are expected to
be loaded with a mix of sm2 block iiaz
and evolved sea sparrow missile essm) surface-to-air missiles the latter of
which can be quad packed into a single
cell as well as tomahawk land attack
cruise missiles. of course other types of missiles such
as variants of the ever more capable
sm-6 family could be added to the
destroyer's arsenals in the future as
well.
The navy did not confirm to naval news
how many ircps missiles the converted
stealth destroyers will be able to carry
it once, though it has been reported that
up to 12 of these weapons could be
loaded onto each ship in the future. This would mean two APMS would take the
place of each of the AGS Turrets. This may seem like a limited number but
each one of these missiles will
reportedly be some 34 and a half inches
in diameter and could be 30 feet or more
in length. By comparison a tomahawk has a length of
some 20 and a half feet including a
rocket booster necessary to fire it from
a VLS Cell and less than 20 and a half
inches in diameter.
IRCPS expected dimensions are based on
what is known about the us army's
ground-based dark eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW system. Dark eagle and IRCPS are using the same
missile design with a common unpowered
hypersonic boost glide vehicle on top
with how they are launched being the
only difference between the two. The DDG-1000s are the most advanced and
survivable surface combatants the navy
has available to it now. Despite years of
watering down of their capabilities
including by adding external systems
that increase their radar signature.
Integrating IRCPS onto these destroyers
could open up new missions for them, either while operating independently or
as part of larger surface actions groups. Their stealthy qualities in particular
would improve their ability to get
within range of their targets. Even ones
relatively deep inside enemy territory, even just to hold them at risk as a
deterrent during a major crisis.
