The Pentagon is working to install the first ever carrier-based hypersonic missile system on a U.S. stealth destroyer that was once thought to be decommissioned.
The USS Zumwalt is stationed at a shipyard in Mississippi during renovations. The U.S. Navy is installing missile launch tubes toward the ship's bow, where two inactive gun turrets once were. The turret was never operational due to cost considerations.
“This was a costly fiasco,” said Brian Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. “But the Navy was able to emerge victorious from the brink of defeat here, and by converting it to a hypersonic platform, it could do something. We were able to bring out its usefulness.” Modified product of Zumwalt.
The development comes as the United States competes with Russia and China to develop and implement new hypersonic weapons technology.
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USS Zumwalt is seen at Huntington Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Hypersonic missiles have important advantages in modern warfare because they travel so fast that missile defense systems cannot reliably shoot them down.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin Last week, it threatened to attack Ukrainian government buildings in Kiev with hypersonic missiles. It is believed that such missiles could even reach the West Coast of the United States.
Putin's announcement came after President Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-made ATACM missiles on targets inside Russian territory.
USS Zumwalt has been retrofitted with a hypersonic missile battery. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
“Of course, as we have already said, continued attacks on Russian territory do not require Western-made We will respond with long-range missiles,” he said at a meeting of the security alliance of former Soviet states in Kazakhstan.
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“Currently, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are selecting targets for attack on Ukrainian territory. They could be military installations, defense and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centers in Kiev,” he said. .
President Putin has threatened to use hypersonic missiles in Ukraine. (Vyacheslav Prokofiev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo, via AP)
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President Putin claimed that Russia's production of advanced missile systems is more than 10 times that of the NATO military alliance, and that Russia plans to further increase production.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
