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US Navy to think hypersonic run cannot be single service 11/11/2022 | Fabio Di Felice

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, Director of the Service’s Strategic Systems Program Office of the US Navy (USN), during an interview at the Naval Submarine League, just reported the most important outcome from the initial phase of the US Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) program, the hypersonic weapon being developed jointly with the Army: it is that such high-end and resource-dragging weapon which is too costly for one service to take the full burden of its development. In accordance with the information leaked on the American defense media, the cost of developing hypersonic weapons, combined with the relatively small industrial base means it isn’t, at this stage, affordable for the USN to go alone. The latter element has been reinforced by Vice Adm. Wolfe, whom can be considered the most expert senior Navy officers directly overseeing CPS, he argued indeed the size of the industrial base means the services would likely fight each other up attempting to purchase components from the same vendors. It is clear that it is not the weapon under development only but also all the industrial base built around it, around the different capabilities and requirements of every service. From the Navy side, the CPS weapon system is expected to be deployed off the Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyers as well as the Virginia-class submarines later this decade. At this stage, Vice Adm. Wolfe considerations have not breached the US Air Force mindset, which is still moving forward alone with its Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, which is being developed in concert with the Australian military through the SCIFiRE agreement, and its ARRW, successfully launched in May. The senior Navy Officer also admitted the failure of the CPS test event in June, focused on a new rocket motor booster stack integrated onto the hypersonic missile’s already proven glide body. Despite the rocket motor booster stack functioned as intended, the weapon missed the target due to an integration issue.

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