Navy Wants Triple-Packed Hypersonic Missile Modules On Its Stealthy Zumwalt Destroyers

The U.S. Navy is now officially looking into what it would take to arm its Zumwalt class stealth destroyers, also referred to as DDG-1000s, with hypersonic missiles. The service has also now disclosed that it is looking to field these missiles loaded into an Advanced Payload Module, or APM, that has "a three-pack configuration."

The Navy's Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office issued the so-called "sources sought notice" on March 18, 2021. This kind of announcement is intended to get companies to submit proposals in order to see what kind of options might be available to meet certain requirements, but is not automatically a prelude to a formal contract. SSP is better known as being responsible for managing the development, acquisition, and sustainment of the Trident D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile and the service's Ohio class ballistic missiles submarines, or SSBNs, as well as work on the forthcoming Columbia class SSBNs.