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US Navy awards $99 million for Zumwalt-class USS Lyndon B. Johnson sea trials amid CPS hypersonic missile conversion.
The U.S. Navy awarded HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding a $99 million contract modification to conduct system testing and sea trials for the Zumwalt-class destroyer USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002). The funding advances delivery preparations in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the warship is receiving modernization upgrades to integrate four 87-inch launch tubes for Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles. The contract modification supports the U.S. Navy’s phased delivery strategy to qualify the ship’s primary combat platforms and electric propulsion systems ahead of scheduled operational fielding in 2027.
The U.S. Navy has awarded $99 million for sea trials of the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, a Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer being converted to carry 12 hypersonic missiles capable of striking targets more than 2,775 km away. (Picture source: Bath Iron Works)
On October 19, 2026, the U.S. Navy awarded HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding a $99 million contract modification to conduct sea trials of the USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer, which is being converted to carry 12 Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles. The stealth warship arrived in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in January 2022 and entered drydock in January 2025 to replace its two 155 mm Advanced Gun Systems with four hypersonic missile launch tubes. The USS Lyndon B. Johnson will become the second Zumwalt-class destroyer fitted with CPS after the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), allowing the U.S. Navy to introduce a weapon designed to exceed Mach 5 and strike targets at distances exceeding 2,775 km. Commissioning has shifted from 2024 to 2027, while the first CPS flight test from a Zumwalt-class destroyer has moved from 2025 to 2027. The award comes as the three-ship modernization program faces a 24-month delay and missile production remains below its objective of 12 rounds annually. The new funding concerns ship trials and delivery preparations, not the procurement of hypersonic missiles or operational qualification.
The USS Lyndon B. Johnson was ordered on September 15, 2011, under a $1.826 billion combined construction award to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works covering both DDG-1002 and the USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001). Named after President Lyndon B. Johnson in April 2012, the destroyer had its keel laid on January 30, 2017, followed by launch on December 9, 2018, and christening on April 27, 2019. The ship departed Bath, Maine, on January 12, 2022, for combat systems integration at Ingalls Shipbuilding, before entering drydock in January 2025 for CPS installation. Unlike the USS Zumwalt, commissioned in October 2016 and subsequently modernized, the USS Lyndon B. Johnson is receiving its hypersonic weapons before commissioning. This avoids a separate post-commissioning conversion but contributes to a three-year shift in its planned entry into service. The latest $99 million award covers sea-trials activities without specifying the separate cost of CPS installation.
The Zumwalt-class program was reduced from 32 planned stealth destroyers to three, eliminating 29 ships, or 90.6% of the original objective. The USS Lyndon B. Johnson measures 182.9 meters long, 24.6 meters wide, and draws 8.4 meters, with a listed displacement of 14,564 tons and a complement of 140 personnel. Its integrated electric propulsion combines two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines rated at 35.4 MW each and two RR4500 generator sets producing 3.8 MW each, totaling 78.4 MW and allowing a maximum speed of 30.3 knots, or 56.1 km/h. The tumblehome hull, inward-sloping superstructure, and AN/SPY-3 X-band multifunction radar form part of a design specifically intended to reduce radar reflections while maintaining surveillance and engagement functions. Twenty Mk 57 peripheral launch modules provide 80 cells for Tomahawk cruise missiles, RIM-162 ESSM interceptors, and RUM-139 anti-submarine rockets, and these remain separate from the 12 planned CPS missiles.
The decision to replace the Advanced Gun Systems reflects the cancellation of the weapon that originally justified much of the Zumwalt-class's land-attack configuration. Each destroyer was built with two AGS with nominal magazines of 920 rounds per gun, totaling 1,840 rounds. The guns depended on the Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP), but their procurement was terminated in 2016, leaving the installations without usable ammunition and preventing the ships from performing their intended long-range naval gunfire-support mission. The Navy subsequently redirected the class toward surface warfare and long-range missile strikes, replacing both forward gun installations with four 87-inch (2.21-meter) diameter launch tubes accommodating three CPS missiles each. The conversion therefore replaces two weapons designed for repeated artillery engagements with a limited inventory of missiles intended for individual high-value targets. The existing 80 Mk 57 cells remain available for other missiles but cannot carry CPS. USS Zumwalt's comparable modernization was 94% complete in January 2026, although unfinished work continued to delay the program.
The Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) uses a two-stage solid-propellant booster and a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) carrying a kinetic-energy projectile warhead. The booster accelerates the missile before releasing the unpowered glide body, which maneuvers through the atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 5, equivalent to 6,174 km/h using a reference speed of sound of 343 m/s. Published range figures extend from 2,700 km to 3,500 km, although no single operational range has been established for all flight profiles. At a constant 6,174 km/h, traveling 2,775 km would take 27 minutes, compared with 185 minutes for a cruise missile flying at 900 km/h, excluding acceleration and maneuvering. The CPS uses cold-gas ejection to push the missile clear of its launch tube before rocket ignition. The U.S. Navy already demonstrated this sequence during an end-to-end test at Cape Canaveral in May 2025, but shipboard qualification remains outstanding.
The CPS development began with earlier hypersonic experiments, including a November 18, 2011, flight exceeding 3,700 km in less than 30 minutes. A second flight failed four seconds after launch on August 25, 2014, followed by a successful C-HGB test in June 2020 and rocket-motor testing in June 2021. A June 2022 CPS flight encountered an anomaly, while subsequent tests in May 2025 and March 2026 advanced missile development. The U.S. Army's Dark Eagle uses common missile components but employs mobile ground launchers and a Battery Operations Center. The Navy plans CPS integration aboard all three Zumwalt-class destroyers and selected Virginia-class submarines. The USS Zumwalt completed builder's sea trials on January 21, 2026, but CPS testing at sea remains scheduled for 2027. Missile availability is a specific risk because production interruptions, component quality problems, and changes in manufacturing personnel have constrained output.
The CPS procurement additionally presents a growing cost and manufacturing problem. The U.S. Navy's estimated lifecycle expenditure increased from $31 billion for 262 missiles in 2020 to $41 billion for 224 missiles in 2024, a 32.3% cost increase despite a 14.5% reduction in planned quantity. These figures correspond to $118.3 million and $183 million per missile when total lifecycle costs are divided by quantities, rather than representing individual procurement prices. Separate missile procurement estimates have increased from nearly $50 million in 2021 to figures approaching $90 million in 2026. Lockheed Martin received a $1.35 billion CPS production and integration modification in April 2026, with work extending through September 2032. Combined Navy and Army investment is expected to exceed $50 billion, but production remains below the objective of 12 missiles annually, with reported manufacturing capacity of six to seven rounds per year. At seven rounds annually, producing the U.S. Navy's planned 200 non-development missiles would require 28.6 years if all output were allocated to that requirement.
The production shortfall directly affects the operational value of the Zumwalt conversion. Each destroyer will have 12 CPS launch positions, providing 36 across the three-ship class, while a complete replacement load would require another 36 missiles. At the planned rate of 12 rounds annually, producing those 72 missiles would take six years; at seven annually, it would take 10.3 years, excluding testing, Army requirements, submarine deliveries, and additional reserves. The initial 36-round destroyer load alone represents 15% of the Navy's original 240-missile requirement. Even with all three ships operational, maintenance and training rotations would prevent the entire theoretical inventory from being continuously available for deployment. CPS employment will additionally require verified targeting, launch-control integration, and performance against representative defenses. The October 2026 contract therefore advances the USS Lyndon B. Johnson toward delivery without resolving the two constraints governing its hypersonic capability: successful shipboard missile qualification and sufficient manufacturing capacity to sustain operational inventories.
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Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.