US Navy asks for $3,6 billion to purchase 64 hypersonic missiles over the next 5 years
The US Navy has for the first time set an initial production schedule for its hypersonic missile program, with a $64 billion purchase of 51 RGM/UGM-3,6A CPS missiles planned over the next five years.
RGM / UGM-51A CPS (Conventional Prompt Strike) is a promising hypersonic weapon Pentagon, jointly developed by the naval fleet and the army. A versatile solid-fuel IRBM equipped with a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) universal maneuvering warhead with a hypersonic flight speed in the Block 1 modification, theoretically capable of speeds in excess of 3 miles per hour (800 km per hour).
The weight of the warhead is 800 pounds (360 kilograms), which theoretically will allow it to accommodate any nuclear weapon available in the US arsenal, from "light", such as W-61, to "heavy", such as W-88. C-HGB warheads are supposed to equip the weapons systems of the army, air force and navy. The development is based on the experimental hypersonic warhead Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW).
The system is based on the AUR solid-propellant rocket - two-stage, length - 10,44 meters, midsection diameter - 887 millimeters. The launch weight is 16 pounds (300 kilograms), and its main feature is the C-HGB detachable guided hypersonic warhead. The maximum range of the missile is 7 nautical miles (400 km).
The Navy plans to use the missile on Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class submarines, while the Army will adopt the land-based MGM-51A LRHW variant.
Details of the Navy's schedule for preparing all phases of the program are set out in recently published service budget justification documents. The FY 2024 request includes $341 million for the first eight missiles.
The Naval Missile Procurement Service's projected schedule for the next five years, subject to change at budget requests, includes 10 missiles for $440 million in FY 2025; 11 missiles for $663 million in FY 2026; 16 missiles for $988 million in FY 2027 and 19 missiles for $1,1 billion in FY 2028.
Missiles designed to arm two URO destroyers - USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) and USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), will be placed in the ship's UVP Mk.57 and two submarines SSN-800 "Arkansas" and SSN-801 "Utah" , in four VPM (Virginia Payload Module) launch blocks, four missiles each (both Virginia Block IV type boats), 16 missiles per carrier.
At the time of publication, it is unclear whether the Army will also seek funding in its new budget request for its MGM-51A LRHW missiles - “... this means that the missile contains a warhead, missile body, container and other components necessary for launch, the relevant supporting documents for them not yet released to the public” was all the Army media officer could spit out, and he didn’t immediately answer Breaking Defense’s questions without actually saying anything.
The Navy plans to equip Zumwalt destroyers with RGM-51A CPS missiles in 2025 and its submarines with UGM-51A CPS missiles tentatively in 2029. While there have been many "joint flight campaigns" in the past year, the head of the Pentagon's weapons test site recently said that "it's too early in the program's life cycle to evaluate its overall effectiveness."
Breaking Defense previously reported that the small number of Zumwalt-class destroyers could also create problems for the Navy during integration due to the limited availability of the ship for testing.
Due to battery failure
According to USNI News, a senior Navy officer who oversaw weapons development admitted to lawmakers earlier this month that the Pentagon had to cancel a recently scheduled test due to "battery failure."
Asked during a Pentagon press conference why the service is continuing production despite failed trials, Rear Admiral John Gumbleton, the service's officer responsible for developing the annual budget request, said "the request is an endorsement of capability."
“The point of testing is to learn something. But we are confident that we can deploy the system as needed, and we will work with our industrial partners to make sure we don't deviate from that - for this production."
he added at a press conference on March 13.
As for the Air Force, the service intends to complete research and development spending on one of its key hypersonic weapons, airborne rapid reaction weapons, in fiscal year 2024, according to Breaking Defense. The Air Force's other major program, the HAWC cruise missile, will continue research and development in fiscal year 2028.
The Air Force previously abandoned one of its unnamed hypersonic weapons programs, hypersonic conventional strike weapons, due to a budget shortfall in 2020.
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