According to a recent report by the Associated Press, the US Navy is turning an expensive mistake into a powerful weapon - the first US warship equipped with hypersonic weapons. The first of the three "Zumwalt" class stealth destroyers will be equipped with this weapon after modification. According to reports, the USS Zumwalt destroyer is currently located at a shipyard in Mississippi, where workers have installed missile launch tubes to replace the twin turret gun system that was never used due to its high cost. After the modification is completed, the "Zumwalt" will become a platform for rapid and precise strikes from farther distances, thereby enhancing the practicality of this warship. Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute in the United States, said, "The Zumwalt class destroyers were once an expensive mistake, but the Navy can turn the tide by retrofitting them into hypersonic missile launch platforms to make them useful." Over the past two decades, the United States has been developing several hypersonic weapons, but recent tests by Russia and China have increased pressure on the US military to accelerate production. Hypersonic weapons have a flight speed of over 5 Mach (five times the speed of sound), greater maneuverability, and are more difficult to shoot down. The United States is developing and planning to deploy a hypersonic weapon called "Conventional Rapid Strike" on the USS Zumwalt. It will be launched like a ballistic missile and then release a hypersonic glider that will fly at 7 to 8 times the speed of sound before hitting the target. This weapon system was jointly developed by the United States Navy and Army. Each Zumwalt class destroyer will be equipped with 4 missile launch tubes, each tube containing 3 missiles, resulting in 12 hypersonic missiles per ship. The report points out that the reason why the US Navy chose to deploy hypersonic weapons on the USS Zumwalt is to make this $7.5 billion warship more useful. Although the 'Zumwalt' is a testing platform for multiple innovative technologies, critics argue that it is an expensive mistake. The United States successfully tested a hypersonic weapon this summer, and missile development work is still ongoing. The US Navy has stated that it hopes to begin testing the system on board the USS Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028. Retired Rear Admiral Ray Spicer, who serves at the United States Naval Academy, said that hypersonic weapons can allow naval vessels to strike enemies from thousands of kilometers away (beyond the range of most enemy weapons), and the enemy does not have effective defense means. Spicer stated that conventional missiles have lower costs, but they are also of little use if they cannot reach their targets. He added that the US military has no choice but to work hard to deploy hypersonic missiles. The opponent owns them. We are never willing to fall behind He said. (New Society)