The Navy’s stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt has returned to sea transformed into the fleet’s first operational hypersonic warship, its original guns ripped out and replaced with 12 missile tubes designed for ultra-fast Conventional Prompt Strike attacks. The refit turns the once-experimental “futuristic” hull into a front-line strike platform, aligning its stealth profile with a new long-range punch. I will walk through how the tubes were added, what they carry, and why this shift could redefine surface warfare.
USS Zumwalt’s hypersonic comeback
The USS Zumwalt is now sailing again after a lengthy modernization that installed the Navy’s first shipborne hypersonic missile system and prepared the destroyer to be operational later this year, according to reporting that highlighted the ship underway for sea trials. The article notes Jan and Share in connection with a photo of The USS Zumwalt credited to Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, underscoring how closely industry and Navy engineers coordinated the complex refit.
By returning to sea with 12 hypersonic tubes embedded into its hull, the Zumwalt finally matches its stealthy silhouette with a strategic mission. For commanders in the Pacific and beyond, the ship’s ability to close silently and then launch Conventional Prompt Strike salvos at extreme range raises the stakes for any adversary planning to mass forces or high-value assets within reach of its new weapons.
From twin 155mm guns to 12 hypersonic tubes
The Zumwalt and sister ships USS Lyndon B. Johnson and USS Michael Monsoor were originally built with two giant 155mm guns, part of the Advanced Gun Systems concept that never reached full potential. As one detailed account explains, the Zumwalt and its two DDG 1000-class counterparts had their main guns removed, clearing space for four large missile tubes.
Each of those four tubes is designed to hold three hypersonic weapons, giving the destroyer a total loadout of 12 long-range missiles in place of the abandoned artillery concept. For the Navy, that trade swaps a niche shore-bombardment role for a strategic strike capability that can threaten hardened targets and mobile launchers, reshaping how surface combatants contribute to deterrence and high-end conflict.
Carving out space for the CPS launcher
Program officials have been explicit that the transformation required major surgery on the ship’s forward section. One account quotes a senior officer saying, “We removed both guns from the ship. We’ve recovered some of the space under the second gun system for spaces that were previously not accessible,” describing how that volume was then integrated with the hypersonic missile capability. That statement, tied to Jan in the reporting, captures the scale of internal rearrangement.
By reclaiming the volume beneath the second Advanced Gun Systems mount, engineers created a deep vertical space suitable for the large-diameter launch cells required by Conventional Prompt Strike. The redesign also allowed for new access routes, maintenance areas, and support systems, ensuring the 12 tubes can be reloaded and sustained during deployments. Strategically, this structural rework turns dead weight into a core warfighting asset.
Conventional Prompt Strike as Zumwalt’s new main battery
The heart of the upgrade is the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system, often shortened to CPS, which replaces the ship’s original artillery as its primary offensive arm. Navy statements cited in one technical overview describe CPS as a non-nuclear, ultra-fast strike capability that can penetrate modern defenses and respond to emerging threats almost instantly, a description echoed in a feature on Zumwalt that also references Jan and the ship’s stealth profile.
For Zumwalt, CPS effectively becomes a digital-age “main battery,” giving the destroyer the ability to hit time-sensitive targets deep inland or at sea without relying on carrier air wings. That shift alters how planners think about surface action groups, since a single stealth destroyer with 12 CPS rounds can now deliver effects once reserved for bombers or ballistic missiles, but with conventional warheads and flexible employment options.
Hypersonic speed and standoff reach
The missiles loaded into Zumwalt’s new tubes are described as hypersonic, capable of speeds exceeding Mach 5, which dramatically compresses the time between launch and impact. One analysis of the refit notes that hypersonic missiles at Mach velocities offer a critical standoff strike capability against a wide range of targets, pairing speed with maneuverability to complicate enemy defenses.
At those speeds, even distant command nodes, air bases, or naval groups can be held at risk with little warning, especially when the launch platform itself is a low-signature hull designed to evade detection. For regional adversaries, the combination of stealth approach and Mach-class weapons forces investment in new sensors and interceptors, while allies see a visible commitment to staying ahead in the hypersonic race.
Builder’s sea trials prove the new design
Before the Navy accepts Zumwalt’s new hypersonic armament, the ship has had to prove its modified hull, power systems, and combat suite at sea. HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding, identified in one update as HII and Ingalls Shipbuilding, completed builder’s sea trials for the USS Zumwalt, marking a major step in modernizing the Navy’s first surface combatant with hypersonic capability, according to coverage of those.
These events tested propulsion, navigation, and the integration of next-generation warfighting systems, including the new launcher complex and associated combat systems. For sailors and engineers, successful trials validate years of design work and yard time, while for policymakers they signal that the hypersonic investment is moving from concept to deployable reality, with Zumwalt as the lead ship in a new class of strike-focused surface combatants.
First time underway since 2023
Zumwalt’s return to open water is also notable because the destroyer had been pier-side since 2023 while the missile refit progressed. A detailed operational account notes that USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) was underway during 2026 builder’s trials, with a caption identifying Sam LaGrone and a 46 reference tied to an HII Photo, and explains that the upgrades included integrating the Conventional Prompt Strike weapon system and replacing the original twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems, as described in that report.
Getting back underway after such extensive structural changes is a critical milestone, confirming that the ship’s unique electric-drive propulsion, sensors, and combat systems still function as an integrated whole. For the crew, it marks the transition from living in a construction site to operating a front-line warship, and for the Navy it starts the clock on final testing before Zumwalt can deploy with its full hypersonic loadout.
The Navy’s first hypersonic surface combatant
Destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) has been repeatedly described as the Navy’s first surface combatant equipped with hypersonic weapons, a status underscored in a detailed yard update that notes how the ship completed modernization at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula. That account, which refers to Destroyer USS Zumwalt and DDG 1000 explicitly, emphasizes that the Navy now has a surface ship purpose-built around this new strike role.
That first-mover status carries both prestige and pressure. Zumwalt will set the template for tactics, logistics, and maintenance of hypersonic systems at sea, and any lessons learned will flow directly into follow-on ships and potential future classes. Allies and competitors alike will watch its deployments closely to gauge how effectively the Navy can integrate such advanced weapons into day-to-day operations.
A new purpose for the Zumwalt-class
For years, critics questioned whether the three DDG 1000 hulls would ever find a clear mission after their Advanced Gun Systems were sidelined. A broader look at the class notes that the Navy confirmed the inactive and never-fired guns on the Zumwalt, USS Michael Monsoor, and USS Lyndon B. Johnson would be removed and replaced with the Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missile, as detailed in a Zumwalt-class overview.
By standardizing CPS across all three ships, the Navy effectively rebrands the class as a trio of hypersonic shooters rather than land-attack gun platforms. Strategically, that gives planners a small but potent squadron of stealthy strike destroyers that can disperse across theaters, complicating adversary targeting and providing flexible options for rapid conventional response.
How CPS fits into the wider strike ecosystem
The Conventional Prompt Strike program is not just a ship upgrade, it is part of a broader effort to field non-nuclear, ultra-fast strike options across services. A technical guide to the program explains that the result is a new class of non-nuclear, ultra-fast strike capability that can penetrate modern defenses and respond to emerging threats almost instantly, language that captures CPS’s intended role in the joint force, as laid out in that guide.
Zumwalt’s 12 tubes therefore represent more than a ship-specific upgrade, they are a floating node in a distributed network of hypersonic launch platforms that may eventually include submarines and land batteries. For adversaries, this complicates calculations about where CPS might be based at any given time, while for U.S. commanders it offers a menu of launch options tailored to political risk, geography, and desired signaling.
Visualizing the launcher architecture
Before the refit was complete, Navy officials previewed the launcher layout in technical briefings. A slide from Capt Clint Lawler’s presentation at the Surface Navy Association symposium, highlighted in a feature shared through The TWZ Newsletter, showed that each one of the new large-diameter tubes would house three rounds of a Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, giving a clear visual sense of how the 12-missile loadout is arranged, as described in that briefing.
Those images underscored the engineering challenge of fitting such large canisters into a hull originally designed around gun magazines and standard vertical launch cells. For ship designers and rival navies alike, the diagrams offered a rare glimpse into how the U.S. is adapting existing platforms to accommodate next-generation weapons without waiting decades for an all-new class.
What 12 hypersonic missiles mean for future deployments
Analysts have zeroed in on the fact that each of the Zumwalt-class destroyers will be equipped with four missile tubes, each with three of the missiles, for a total of 12 hypersonic weapons per ship, a configuration spelled out in a detailed summary that also notes Each of the Zumwalt hulls will share this layout. That means the trio collectively could bring 36 hypersonic rounds to a theater, even before any future expansions.
In operational terms, a single 16,000-ton guided missile destroyer carrying 12 such weapons can threaten multiple high-value targets in a single salvo or hold back rounds for sequential strikes. As Zumwalt completes workups and moves toward deployment, commanders will have to decide how to balance deterrent patrols, allied exercises, and crisis response, knowing that every movement of this stealth ship now carries hypersonic implications.
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