Zamvolta’s second life: will hypersonic missiles save the most problematic US Navy ship
Three drops in the sea
At one time, the destroyer Zumwalt could become one of the most revolutionary ships in stories. All thanks to its stealth and a set of advanced weapons systems. However, instead of the revolution, the Americans received a large pile of problems and very dubious prospects for the real manifestation of the capabilities of the destroyer. Ultimately, instead of 32 ships originally planned for construction, they were limited to three: USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002). It is difficult to name such a step as saving: experts estimated the cost of building three ships at more than twelve billion dollars with a total program price of over 22 billion.
It is noteworthy that the US never received the ship they wanted. There is little doubt that detecting the Zumwalt is much more difficult than, for example, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, but the current destroyer's armament is a pale shadow of what was previously planned. Let us recall that at one time the Navy abandoned the idea of equipping the ship with a revolutionary railgun - an electromagnetic mass accelerator that accelerates a conductive projectile along two metal guides using the Lorentz force. This turned out to be technically difficult, expensive and energy-consuming. Then the Americans abandoned another idea - to use a guided long-range LRLAP projectile for a 155-mm cannon. As it turned out, the cost of one projectile is comparable to the cost of a cruise missiles and is about 800 thousand US dollars. "We were going to buy thousands of these shells, but the number of ships simply killed the affordable shell," Gazeta.Ru quotes a US Navy representative as saying.
In addition, instead of the originally envisioned powerful 57-millimeter artillery systems, a modest 30-millimeter Mark 46 MOD 2 Gun Weapon System (GWS) based on Bushmaster II was mounted on the ship. Not so long ago, Zumwalt first performed firing from these artillery mounts: not a big achievement for a program with such a cost.
Zumwalt as a Supplement
It is not surprising that the role of the destroyer has been repeatedly reviewed and adjusted. In 2018, they wanted to make him a “killer” of the ships of a potential enemy (it is not entirely clear why this is necessary if the US Navy has many aircraft carriers). Now, it seems, the role of Zumwalt has again decided to reconsider. In the House of Representatives, they want to see the destroyer as the carrier of hypersonic weapons. According to US Naval Institute News, the defense budget of the House of Representatives for 2021 will contain a provision requiring the U.S. Navy to begin integration of the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) complex into the armament of destroyers by 2021.
Earlier, USNI News reported that the carrier of the Hypersonic Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) unit, created as part of the Conventional Prompt Strike, chose a Virginia-type multipurpose nuclear submarine. According to the plan, the US Navy wants to get a two-stage missile with a diameter of 87 centimeters. It acts as the carrier for the C-HGB hypersonic glider, developed by Dynetics Technical Solutions. The project is based on the experimental hypersonic warhead Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), which, according to unofficial data, has a range of up to 6000 kilometers. It is known that during tests conducted in 2011 and 2012, the warhead reached a speed of 8 Machs.
Not all boats want to arm the new hypersonic complex, but specifically the new Virginia Block V, equipped with additional Virginia Payload Module payload compartments - modules with 28 vertical launchers.
It is not entirely clear how exactly to enter into these Napoleonic plans a warship that is problematic and not yet ready for full operation. It is not clear how to add new missiles to Zumwalt. Popular Mechanics, in Congress Wants To Load Up Zumwalt-Class Destroyers With Hypersonic Weapons, believes the CPS is too complex to fit in Zumwalt vertical installations.
Let us recall that the ship's main armament is twenty universal Mk-57 launchers with a total capacity of 80 missiles. Theoretically, fleet may go for the dismantling of the two forward AGS guns, which have become de facto unnecessary due to the refusal to purchase shells, and the addition of missile pods equipped with hypersonic missiles in their place. However, this step may entail a decrease in stealth indicators: the Zumwalt profile is not an accident, but the result of careful and painstaking work of many scientists. Changing it may have negative consequences for the stealth of the ship.
Other questions will arise. If the Navy's new hypersonic missile does not have any anti-ship capabilities (which is very likely), the project will force another change in the Zumwalt concept. That is, the ship will again become a tool for hitting targets on the shore instead of the previously proposed anti-ship role. Even now, American experts believe that such "ping-pong" will only further delay the full start of the fleet's operation of the three destroyers. Given that the first of them should be ready for service now.
In theory, Zumwalt, having stealth (provided that these characteristics are preserved), will be able to approach the enemy at a minimum distance and launch hypersonic missiles. However, modernized submarines like Virginia can do the same. Fortunately for the United States, they belong to the last - fourth generation of nuclear submarines. Which, among other things, boasts a minimum noise level and, as a result, the difficulty of detection.
With all this, one should not forget that there are only three Zumwalt type destroyers, and the modifications needed to add missiles developed as part of the Conventional Prompt Strike can be very expensive.
Residual phenomenon
The plans voiced now are not so much a desire to unleash the potential of Zumwalt, but to make maximum use of the capabilities of new hypersonic missiles. The irony is that there is no such weapon in the arsenal of Americans yet: if everything goes as they plan, then the new systems will replenish the arsenal of the Navy around the mid-2020s. By that time, the very concept of using hypersonic weapons may change.
Much, of course, depends on how successful (or unsuccessful) the trials will be. In general, the situation with Zumwalt is similar to that which we can see in the Russian fleet. Recall that many large surface ships and nuclear submarines, including the heavy nuclear missile cruisers Peter the Great and Admiral Nakhimov, wanted to equip the new Zircon hypersonic missile. “If everything goes as it is now, it will have (Admiral Nakhimov’s. - Auth.), Probably the most powerful weapon we have,” said Alexey Rakhmanov, head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation in 2019. Just so far, none of the mere mortals have seen any Zircons, and even heavy cruisers are not eternal.
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