Last Zumwalt Destroyer, DDG-1002, Heads Toward Sea Trials
The Navy gave HII $99 million to test and sea-trial USS Lyndon B. Johnson, the last Zumwalt-class destroyer, as it is refitted for hypersonic missiles.
The U.S. Navy has paid for the last stretch of work on its last Zumwalt-class destroyer. HII said on 19 October that its Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Mississippi, received a $99 million contract modification to run system tests and sea trials for the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002). Stars and Stripes reported that the Navy approved the deal the same day, and that Ingalls president Brian Blanchette said the yard aims to have the ship ready to turn over to the Navy by next year.
The ship has been at Ingalls since January 2022, where workers are installing, activating and testing its combat systems, according to HII’s announcement. It is also being fitted to carry Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), the Navy’s hypersonic missile. HII describes it as the service’s second CPS-equipped platform. “This award reflects the Navy’s continued confidence in the Ingalls team to execute the critical system test and sea trials work essential to the Navy’s phased delivery approach,” Blanchette said in the release.
From 32 ships to three
The Zumwalt design began in the 1990s as the DD-21 program, part of a broader effort to build surface combatants for the 21st century. Navy plans once called for up to 32 of the ships, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says. The number fell to between 16 and 24, then to seven, and finally to three after the Navy said in July 2008 that it wanted to stop buying them. The first two ships were funded in fiscal 2007 and the third in fiscal 2009. The Navy’s fiscal 2024 budget put their combined cost at about $9.45 billion for the first pair and $4.34 billion for DDG-1002.
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine built all three ships, according to CRS. Stars and Stripes lists the milestones: USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) had its keel laid in November 2011 and was commissioned in 2016; USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) followed with a keel in May 2013 and commissioning in January 2019. Lyndon B. Johnson’s keel went down in January 2017. Nearly ten years later, it is still not listed as commissioned in the Naval Vessel Registry, the paper noted. CRS adds that delivery dates for the second and third ships have slipped several times; the fiscal 2024 budget listed December 2026 for DDG-1002.
The ships were built around two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems meant to fire a rocket-assisted shell, the Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile, to support troops ashore. The Navy stopped buying that shell in November 2016 after its projected price rose to at least $800,000 per round, CRS reports. In December 2017, the class’s main mission was reported to have shifted to striking surface targets.
Key specs and figures
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Zumwalt (DDG-1000), three ships; DDG-1002 is the last | CRS; HII |
| Displacement | 15,656 tons full load (estimated); Aegis ships up to about 9,700 | CRS |
| Crew | 175 (147 ship’s company plus 28 aviation) | CRS |
| Hull and power | Wave-piercing tumblehome hull; integrated electric drive | CRS; HII |
| Superstructure | Partly composite on first two ships; not on DDG-1002 | CRS |
| Planned CPS load | 4 large-diameter tubes, 3 missiles each (12 per ship), as reported | CRS |
| DDG-1002 procurement cost | $4.34 billion (FY2024 budget estimate) | CRS |
| Sea-trials contract | $99 million modification, 19 Oct 2026 | HII; Stars and Stripes |
A hypersonic refit running late
To arm the class for long-range strike, the Navy plans to remove one gun system from each ship and install the large-diameter vertical launch tubes for CPS, CRS says. For DDG-1002, the fiscal 2024 budget included $234 million to make that change while the ship was still under construction. CRS also reports that the Navy wants to replace some of the class’s unique combat-system equipment with gear that matches the rest of the surface fleet, an effort called the Zumwalt Enterprise Upgrade Solution (ZEUS).
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a July 2026 report that the effort to modernize all three ships is 24 months behind. Work on USS Zumwalt was 94 percent complete as of January 2026 but delayed by unplanned work. CPS flight testing from the class, first scheduled for 2025, is now planned for 2027 because of funding and testing problems. GAO also warned that the ships’ one-of-a-kind radar, combat and network systems are costly and difficult to maintain.
The missile itself is the other bottleneck. When the Navy chose CPS for the Zumwalts in 2021, the planned cost was nearly $50 million per missile, GAO said. DefenseScoop, reporting on the same GAO review, said Lockheed Martin can currently build only six to seven rounds a year against a goal of 12, that unit costs are now estimated at $63 million to $71 million, and that the Navy’s lifecycle estimate for CPS has grown to about $41 billion from $31 billion in 2020. The Army shares the production line for its version, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, and GAO recommended a single Pentagon strategy to coordinate the two services’ spending. The Defense Department concurred.
Why it matters
Analysis, based on the sources cited in this article:
Sea trials would move DDG-1002 closer to the fleet, but they do not by themselves deliver a hypersonic strike ship. Using the reported figure of 12 missiles per ship, filling all three Zumwalts would take 36 rounds. At the six to seven rounds a year GAO found, that would equal more than five years of current output, before counting the Army’s demand on the same line. The ship’s value as a strike platform therefore depends at least as much on the missile factory as on the shipyard in Pascagoula.
The program also shows the cost of a small class. With only three hulls, the Navy carries unique equipment that GAO calls hard to sustain, which helps explain the ZEUS push toward common gear. If the CPS schedule holds, the Zumwalts would become the Navy’s first surface ships able to strike distant, heavily defended targets at hypersonic speed. That role would sit alongside the planned CPS installation on Block V Virginia-class submarines in the early 2030s, DefenseScoop reported, and the Air Force’s own ARRW hypersonic missile. For how destroyers fit among other surface combatants, see our guide to types of warships.
What to watch: the date of DDG-1002’s first underway trials and its delivery to the Navy; whether the 2027 CPS flight test from a Zumwalt stays on schedule; any change in Lockheed’s annual missile output; and how the Pentagon answers GAO’s call for a joint Army-Navy investment strategy.
Sources
- HII, HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Awarded Contract Modification for DDG 1002 Sea Trials, 19 October 2026.
- Stars and Stripes, Navy signs contract to finish last Zumwalt-class destroyer, 26 October 2026.
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Navy Ship Modernization: DOD Needs Comprehensive Strategy to Field Hypersonic Missile Capability, GAO-26-107974, 17 July 2026 (summary also reprinted by USNI News).
- Congressional Research Service, Navy DDG-51 and DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs: Background and Issues for Congress, RL32109, updated 5 December 2025.
- DefenseScoop, GAO: Lockheed Martin struggling to build Navy hypersonic missile at scale, 17 July 2026.
