Ingalls Shipbuilding awarded $155 million contract for USS Zumwalt modernisation

USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) arrived in Pascagoula on 19 August. The ship will enter a modernisation period and receive technology upgrades including the integration of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) weapon system.

In January 2023, Ingalls was awarded a $10.5 million contract for the modernisation period planning of Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers, Zumwalt and Michael Monsoor.

USS Michael Monsoor will receive the CPS install at Ingalls during a future modernisation period. Additionally, USS Lyndon B Johnson (DDG 1002) arrived at Ingalls in January 2022 and is undergoing combat systems activation.

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The USN is evolving the Zumwalt-class destroyers into what it calls its first ‘offensive strike platform’. The first step in developing the capability will be fielding the CPS weapon, which will make the class the first in the USN to field a hypersonic missile.

The service plans to field additional surface strike capabilities onto the destroyers, including the SM-6 and future weapons that can best use the Mk57 vertical launching system.

The Zumwalt-class destroyers were known as the DD 21 and then DD(X) destroyer with a role focusing on land attack. The intention was to provide 32 ships that can offer naval gunfire support to USN littoral operations following the retirement of the last Iowa-class battleships from service in the late-1990s. Due to the huge cost increase, in April 2009, the class was cut to just three ships.