The United States decided to dismantle the 155-millimeter guns in the bow of the Zumwalt, installing vertical shafts with hypersonic missiles in their place.
The US plans to equip the "scandalous" Zumwalt-type stealth destroyers with hypersonic weapons are becoming more and more specific. As it became known, for the sake of this, 155-millimeter artillery installations, which were among the main features of destroyers, will be abandoned.
Earlier, the US Navy decided not to buy ammunition for 155-millimeter guns because of the too high cost, which de facto made them dead weight and provoked discussions about the possibility of installing other weapons in their place.
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| Testing of an artillery installation for the destroyer Zumwalt. |
| Source: ©wikipedia |
The decision did not come as a surprise: earlier, the United States had already talked about plans to equip Zumwalt-type ships with hypersonic weapons. As a result, the new missiles were decided to be placed on all three Zumwalt-type destroyers - USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) and USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).
Each Zumwalt already has a tactical strike armament consisting of 20 Mk. 57 vertical launch units, formerly known as the Peripheral Vertical Launching System.
The new hypersonic weapon was called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS). It uses a universal controlled maneuverable Glide Body (C-HGB) Common-Hypersonic Glide Body.
Recall that the United States recently put to sea for the first time the third and last ship of the Zumwalt type - the Lyndon B. Johnson mentioned above. Initially, the Americans wanted to get 32 such ships, making them one of the main combat units of their fleet. Later, this number was reduced to 24, and then to seven. The ever-increasing price of destroyers has led to the fact that in the end they will be limited to three ships.
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| The ship of the Zumwalt type "Lyndon B. Johnson". |
| Source: Bath Iron Works |
This was just the beginning of the problems, many of which were conceptual in nature. Until recently, the Americans could not decide on the appointment of Zumwalt and the role he would play in the Navy. As a result, the ships were turned into platforms for launching new hypersonic weapons.
Recently, they often talk about a new "hypersonic race", in which not only the United States is participating. Russia is often called among the leaders. The most ambitious project in Moscow in this area can be called "Zircon" .
The rocket should be put into service very soon. According to media reports, the first full-time underwater carrier of the Zircon will be the multipurpose nuclear submarine Perm of the 885M project.
