The United States is seeking to put hypersonic, ship-killing missiles on its warships as it races to land the missiles on ideal naval launch platforms, aiming to catch up with China and Russia.
This month, The War Zone reported that the U.S. Navy is improving its maritime strike capabilities through the Hypersonic Air-Launched Attack Anti-Surface Warfare (HALO) program, which aims to equip its surface and submarine fleets with air-launched hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.
The effort, highlighted in a recent contract announcement, is part of the Navy’s broader Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) incremental project. According to a report by The War Zone, in March 2023, the U.S. Navy awarded contracts to defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin for competing missile designs that would likely be powered by advanced ramjet or scramjet engines.
The HALO program, scheduled for a flight demonstration in fiscal year 2027, aims to enhance the U.S. Navy’s ability to counter advanced naval threats to China, particularly in contested environments in the Pacific.
The HALO program also promises acquisition and sustainment benefits through economies of scale and a common supply chain for air, ground and subsurface launch platforms, according to the War Zone report.
The U.S. Navy aims to field an air-launched HALO missile by 2029, potentially expanding to surface- and subsea-launched configurations in the future. The development reflects the Navy’s response to similar advances by near-peer rivals China and Russia.
This also fits with the U.S. military’s broader interest in hypersonic technology, as seen in the Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Still, the U.S. may face a hypersonic firepower gap against China and Russia, which are already testing and using ship-launched hypersonic weapons in combat.
In its fiscal year 2025 budget request, the U.S. Navy describes OASuW/HALO as “a key component of joint force-to-surface combat capabilities and an offensive weapons system incorporating new and emerging technologies to support improved offensive capabilities utilizing multiple weapons.”
The plan states that it will “provide the Navy with the weapons it needs to meet evolving long-range, high-speed threats from near-field competitors.”
It is worth noting that China is already fielding the YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship missile, which it test-fired from the Type 055 cruiser in April 2023. The YJ-21 reportedly travels at six times the speed of sound and has a terminal velocity of 10 times the speed of sound, making it nearly impossible to intercept if the claims are correct.
Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly used Zircon hypersonic missiles in the ongoing war in Ukraine, and in February the Kyiv National Defence Institute (KNDISE) claimed to have found Zircon missile parts after analyzing missile debris from a Russian missile attack.
Russia’s Zircon missile has a range of 1,000 km and travels at nine times the speed of sound. The missile was test-fired from two warships – the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the Severodvinsk submarine – before being used to arm the frigates in January 2023.
In January 2024, the Asia Times noted that the U.S. Navy still relies on high subsonic missiles such as the Harpoon, Naval Strike Missile (NSM) and Tomahawk, putting the United States at a disadvantage against adversaries equipped with hypersonic weapons.
The Harpoon first entered service in 1977 and has been continually upgraded throughout its service life, but it may already have reached the limits of its potential.
The NSM is equipped with an infrared seeker that can guide it to a specific part of a ship, making it resistant to electronic countermeasures, but its lightweight 100-kilogram programmable fusion warhead is not as powerful as the Harpoon’s 207-kilogram time-delayed contact fusion warhead. The NSM’s range of 200 kilometers is shorter than the 248 kilometers of the Harpoon Extended Range (Harpoon ER).
Tomahawks carry a massive 454-kilogram warhead with a range of 1,250 to 2,500 kilometers (850 to 1,500 miles) depending on the variant, but their subsonic speed and non-stealth design can make them vulnerable to advanced air defense systems.
The Navy added that the OASuW program is “part of a long-range fires (LRF) approach to counter advanced threat capabilities in an anti-access/area denial (A2AD) environment.”
The report describes HALO as “a faster, longer-range air-launched weapon system suitable for aircraft carrier deployment with superior anti-surface warfare (ASW) capabilities.”
While China and Russia are building warships capable of firing hypersonic missiles, the United States may still be struggling to find the ideal platform as it attempts to reuse its controversial Zumwalt-class destroyers and invests in its next-generation DDG(X), which has faced numerous problems during its development phase.
In December 2023, Defense News reported that Russia launched the Project 22350 Admiral Golovko frigate, the country’s first vessel designed to launch hypersonic missiles such as the Zircon. Defense News reported that Russia plans to build 12 upgraded versions under Project 22350M.
The report said the ship will likely use universal launchers for Kalibr, Onix and Zircon missiles, although given the high cost of the Zircon missiles, the other two projectiles are likely to form the core of the ship’s anti-ship armament.
The Project 22350M frigates will be produced piece by piece. The warships’ builder, Severnaya Verkh, lacks the facilities, modernization and equipment. Defense News also notes that Western sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have made it difficult or impossible to obtain high-quality parts for the radar and diesel engines.
Asia Times reported in March 2022 that the U.S. Navy is converting its troubled Zumwalt-class destroyers into hypersonic missile launchers, transforming the futuristic vessels from their original purpose as stealthy coastal bombardment vessels into blue-water strike platforms.
But the project may also be an attempt to salvage an originally unfeasible design: Zumwalt’s tumblehome stealth hull would become unstable in the open ocean and could be detected by low-frequency radar.
The class also does not feature a Close-In Weapons System (CIWS), which could make it vulnerable to air and missile attacks. The high price tag of $4.24 billion per ship for just three destroyers suggests that the number of Zumwalt destroyers may not be sufficient to meet the U.S. Navy’s operational needs.
The next generation DDG(X) is designed to address the shortcomings of the Zumwalt class, but Shepherd Media reported this month that the DDG(X) may face cancellation due to excessive costs, a supply crisis in the U.S. submarine fleet and issues with U.S. shipyards.
According to the Shepherd Media report, it is not feasible to completely replace the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with DDG(X)s, as the DDG(X) costs $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion per ship, compared with $2.2 billion for the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
The Shepherd Media report also points out the differences in the DDG(X)’s design features and the U.S. Navy’s priorities, citing the vulnerability of large surface ships to a potential high-intensity conflict with China.
The DDG(X) is equipped with 96 vertical launch systems (VLS) capable of firing larger, longer-range, and possibly hypersonic missiles, but the U.S. Navy is focused on submarines and unmanned systems, making the DDG(X) capable of firing hypersonic missiles a poor fit for the future force structure.
