U.S. Navy strategic weapons experts needed guidance and control for future ship- and submarine-launched hypersonic missiles designed to attack the enemy’s valuable mobile systems. They found a solution from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass.<\/p>\n
Officials of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs office in Washington announced a $308.3 million contract to Draper Lab on 14 March for Conventional Prompt Strike\u00a0inertial\u00a0navigation measurement and analysis, flight-testing support, Global Positioning System applications and electro optical alternate navigation, guidance, and reentry subsystems.<\/p>\n
The hypersonic Lockheed Martin Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system is a boost-glide hypersonic missile with a two-stage solid rocket motor, a hypersonic glide body, and a kinetic-energy warhead. A hypersonic projectile travels at speeds of at least five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour. Lockheed Martin Space is the CPS prime systems integrator.<\/p>\n
A hypersonic missile traveling at Mach 5 or faster doesn’t need an explosive warhead; its kinetic energy alone is sufficient to destroy or disable nearly any target it hits.<\/p>\n
Military leaders say they plan to launch Conventional Prompt Strike from Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines to strike valuable, mobile, and time-critical targets. First deployment of the CPS is scheduled for as early as 2028 aboard Virginia-class attack submarines.<\/p>\n
The Advanced Payload Module is a hypersonic missile launcher for Zumwalt-class destroyers, and the Virginia Payload Module is the hypersonic missile launcher for Virginia-class attack submarines.<\/p>\n
The three Zumwalt-class destroyers — USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002) — are multi-mission stealth ships with onboard computers and computer networking that focus on land attack, with secondary roles of surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare, and naval gunfire support.<\/p>\n
Draper Lab is a longtime supplier of navigation and\u00a0guidance\u00a0systems for U.S. strategic weapons. The company designs the inertial and celestial guidance systems for the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile, and is developing the Trident II’s next-generation guidance system. The company also may take part in the future Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, which will replace the Minuteman III.<\/p>\n
The Navy’s Trident II D5 nuclear missiles are designed for launch from Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, from the Navy’s future Columbia-class submarine, and from British Royal Navy Vanguard-class ballistic-missile submarines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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