The USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) was once hailed as a vision of the Navy of tomorrow—a stealthy, angular destroyer full of advanced systems and sporting a pair of behemoth 155mm Advanced Gun Systems (AGS). The vision was ambitious: a 32-ship Zumwalt-class destroyer force that would capitalize on raw firepower, advanced stealth, and creative design. Reality was less generous. Rising expenses, technical challenges, and shifting Navy priorities reduced that dream to just three ships, leaving behind in their wake a $22 billion experiment turned engineering wonder and cautionary tale.
The AGS was originally Zumwalt’s workhorse firepower. It was designed to shoot Long Range Land Attack Projectiles (LRLAP), precision-guided projectiles that could strike with near-surgical accuracy. It was a revolutionary concept on paper. In practice, it collapsed under its own cost—each round costing an eye-popping sum of around $800,000. As the Navy’s focus moved from beach bombardment to great power warfare on the open seas, the AGS was no longer needed. Even more revolutionary concepts like railguns, once being considered for the Zumwalt’s enormous power plants, also came to nothing. A lot of the potential of the ship seemed left on the table.
That was reversed when the Navy embraced hypersonic weapons. Rather than being used mostly as a shore-bombardment ship, Zumwalt was reconfigured to deploy the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile. The boost-glide missiles can travel over five times the speed of sound and strike targets up to 1,700 miles away. The makeover involved a complete overhaul at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, where Zumwalt spent a year being repurposed to accommodate the new launch systems.
The original AGS gun mounts were removed, and the forward mount was reconfigured into a battery of CPS launch canisters. Today, Zumwalt carries four canisters on each side, each with three missiles—a dozen hypersonic projectiles. These are not just upgrades; they are an overhaul of the ship’s mission, completely. With their incredible speed and long range, CPS missiles are meant to break through defenses and strike strategic targets before an enemy can retaliate. Upcoming models evencano fly in mid-air maneuvering capability, enabling them to track moving targets on the sea.
Zumwalt’s firepower, however, doesn’t end there. Her Integrated Power System (IPS), driven by two gigantic Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines, produces a staggering 78 megawatts of electricity. Even when running at 20 knots, she has 58 megawatts of excess power—plenty to illuminate a small city.
This makes her an ideal testbed for state-of-the-art technologies like high-energy lasers and sophisticated sensor suites. Combined with her stealthy tumblehome hull and composite superstructure, Zumwalt was designed to be more invisible than any destroyer ever constructed.
Apart from hypersonics, Zumwalt continues to possess a powerful set of weapons. She carries 80 Peripheral Vertical Launch System (PVLS) cells that are capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, Standard Missiles, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, and anti-submarine rockets. Her automation means that she can be crewed by only 147 sailors, complemented by space for 28 Marines.
That is a significant decrease from the massive crews of older destroyers. Sophisticated radars such as the SPY-3 provide her with a capability of monitoring threats in the air and on the ground, even in hostile terrains.
Adding hypersonic strike capability has rebranded the Zumwalt. The CPS missile shares the same glide body as the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, and both branches can ride the same production base, saving funds and achieving speed in deployment. Navy officials have cried it loud and clear: Zumwalt is now the proving ground for the fleet in the age of hypersonic, and her success will dictate the future of naval warfare.
The Zumwalt story is one of high ambition, hard-learned lessons, and radical innovation. Despite its original vision’s failure, the ship’s key technologies—her propulsion plants, stealth capability, and now hypersonic missiles—are unmatched even today. The future DDG(X) destroyers of the Navy will leverage the innovations of Zumwalt with the pedigree of the Arleigh Burke class, never forgetting the program’s lessons.
Where Zumwalt will end up in history is anyone’s guess. She could be the revolutionary platform of imagination designed years ago, or she could be a bold failure that took the envelope one too far. For now, she is proof of the potential of radical ideas—even imperfect ones—to take what is possible at sea. From failures to leaps ahead, Zumwalt has emerged as the Navy’s most innovative hypersonic warship.
