The U.S. Navy has added $99.1 million to an existing contract with Huntington Ingalls Industries to conduct sea trials for USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), the final Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer, which is being fitted with hypersonic missiles. The modification, announced by the U.S. Department of War, raises the contract ceiling for work at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where about 95% of the work will occur. The Navy obligated about $59.3 million at signing, split between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026 shipbuilding funds, with completion scheduled for October 2028.
During sea trials, the ship will test propulsion, steering, combat systems, and other equipment at sea before Navy acceptance. For Lyndon B. Johnson, the trials follow years of work to install Conventional Prompt Strike, a hypersonic missile designed to reach targets thousands of kilometers away at more than five times the speed of sound.
The Zumwalt class was originally built around two 155 mm Advanced Gun Systems, but the Navy canceled the guns’ special long-range shells in 2016 after costs soared, leaving the destroyers with unusable guns. The Navy later decided to remove the guns and give the ships a new strike mission with hypersonic missiles.
Lyndon B. Johnson was built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine and christened in April 2019. It moved to Ingalls for combat system activation and entered dry dock in January 2025 to install the large missile tubes for Conventional Prompt Strike. The Navy said at that time it planned to commission the destroyer in 2027.
The lead ship, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), completed the same conversion first, replacing its forward gun with four large-diameter tubes that each hold three hypersonic missiles, for a total of 12. Zumwalt completed builder’s sea trials in January 2026 after nearly three years in the yard. The second ship, USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), is set to receive the same missile system during a future yard period.
Conventional Prompt Strike shares its hypersonic glide body with the U.S. Army’s Dark Eagle long-range hypersonic weapon, which is fielded on truck-mounted launchers. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, received a $1.36 billion contract modification earlier this year to support missile and launcher production.
Ingalls is due to finish Lyndon B. Johnson’s sea trials and related work by October 2028, which would make it the second Zumwalt-class destroyer to go to sea with hypersonic missile tubes.
Sources: Defence Blog · Defence Blog