Statements by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (RADM) Derek Trinque, the Director of Surface Warfare (N96) at the 2026 Surface Navy Symposium reveal the U.S. Navy’s intentions to spread the hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missiles throughout the surface fleet.
Largely, expansion plans within the surface fleet come in the shape of future large surface combatants, mainly aboard the new Trump-class Guided Missile Battleships or BBG(X), with each vessel retaining space for 12 of the missiles in the bow. Currently, the U.S. surface fleet possesses no means of stand off Hypersonic strike, with the objective of this expansion likely to give a new round of capabilities back to the surface fleet.
This initiative partly came in lieu of the assessed limitations within the former next generation Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG(X)) program, with the Navy increasingly viewing the size and thus the space for any future surface weapons as a potential road-block in capability.
“I want very much to have CPS in our most capable surface ship, and so we said DDG(X) is where we should do this. But we went and found ourselves in a weird situation where in order to keep an adequate amount of Mark 41 VLS cells, we were going to have to make a choice between a gun weapon system and Conventional Prompt Strike.”
– RADM Derek Trinque, Director of Surface Warfare USN
Initial models place the USS Defiant, the first Trump-class Guided Missile Battleship, with an allotment of 12 CPS cells at the bow of the ship. This armament is supplemented by a rail-gun armament and a 128 Mk-41 VLS cells along with mountings for direct energy weapons and other close in weapons available.
Hypersonic Strike and the Near Term
Presently, the U.S Navy’s surface force has plans to field the first vessel in all of the branch’s fleet (including the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine inventory) to be equipped with CPS/hypersonic strike capability, the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). As reported by Naval News during SNA 2026, the Zumwalt will depart her re-fit period sometime this year, leaving behind both Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) in lieu of the forward turret space housing 12 CPS rounds (3 to a cell, 4 total cells) and the second turret’s space being recapitalized for “other uses”.
All of the Zumwalts will be refitted along the same standard, with the USS Micheal Monsoor (DDG-1001) being the last to receive the re-fit, entering drydock in 2027 after the re-fit of the Zumwalt and the USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) are completed and almost finalized respectively.
Following the Zumwalts, the next vessels to carry CPS rounds will be the Block V Virginia-class submarines, with storage of the missiles allowed by the addition of 4 extra missile banks in the Virginia Payload Module (VPM). The first Block V under construction is the second in the block, the future USS Oklahoma, with the boat laid down in 2022 with delivery expected in 2028.
