WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The vertical missile launcher designed for the U.S. Navy's DDG 1000 destroyer has been successfully tested in the New Mexico desert.
Raytheon announced Monday it and partner BAE Systems had carried out a restrained test firing of a missile booster from the MK57 Vertical Launching System that is slated to be the primary punch of the ambitious new class of destroyer.
"The success of this restrained firing is another indicator that the program has a robust preliminary design and is ready to enter detailed design," said BAE Program Manager Jay Dolan.
The test at White Sands Missile Range involved a static burn of the MK72 rocket motor that serves as the booster for the Standard Missile-2.
The DDG 1000, also known as the Zumwalt class, will have 20 individual MK57 launchers per ship that will carry out a variety of missions. The system's open architecture means that new missiles can be introduced to the DDG 1000 repertoire without any major modification to the launcher software. The launcher itself is a bit larger than current vertical launchers and capable of handling a larger number of different missiles.
The enormous list of design work required to turn plans for the DDG 1000 into an actual ship continues. Raytheon and BAE said in a new release that the MK57 continued to proceed smoothly and was on track for the completion of the design phase and start of the production phase.
