On Friday, September 5, 2025, the U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) office, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense, signed an execution contract worth 132,599,818 USD with Lockheed Martin Space of Littleton, Colorado (part of Lockheed Martin), for the continuation of the CPS (Conventional Prompt Strike) hypersonic missile program.
The missile, with a diameter of 88 cm and a launch weight of 7,400 kg, is expected to have a range exceeding 1,550 nautical miles (2,870 km) and a speed of Mach 17 / Photo: U.S. Navy
This is part of the framework agreement of May 30 of this year, with a maximum value of 1,002,700,000 USD. The implementation contract covers continued engineering and testing support.
The work will be carried out in Denver, Colorado (44%); Courtland and Sunnyvale, California (16%); Alabama (12%); Pittsfield, Massachusetts (7%); Sunnyvale, California (5%); Cambridge, Massachusetts (5%); Huntsville, Alabama (3%); Magna, Utah (2%); Washington (1%); Simsbury, Connecticut (1%); Cape Canaveral, Florida (1%); and many other locations (3%). Completion of the work under this contract is scheduled for December 31, 2025.
Funds in the amount of 25,000,000 USD come from the FY2025 NDAA defense budget allocated to the U.S. Navy for research, development, testing, and evaluation. They were released at the time of contract execution and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year (September 30).
Earlier, on March 14 of this year, the SSP awarded a CPS program contract worth 308,270,645 USD to the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for inertial navigation system measurement and analysis, flight test support, GPS applications and alternative electro-optical navigation, as well as guidance and reentry subsystems.
Conventional Prompt Strike
The CPS shares the universal airframe of the hypersonic glide missile, codenamed C-HGB (Common Hypersonic Glide Body), with the land-based Dark Eagle LRHW (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon) system, which is entering service with the U.S. Army.
Recently, on May 2 of this year, the U.S. Navy successfully conducted the first CPS test from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station military range in Florida.
For the Navy, the CPS will initially be deployed on Virginia-class Block V nuclear-powered attack submarines and on three Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers, and in the future will be integrated into next-generation guided-missile destroyers developed under the DDG(X) program (Next-Generation Guided-Missile Destroyer).
It is worth recalling that on August 9, 2024, the SSP program office signed a contract worth 220 million USD with Lockheed Martin Space for the continuation of the CPS program. Earlier, on June 26, 2024, it signed a contract worth 534 million USD, with an option raising it to 570 million USD, with Lockheed Martin for continued engineering work, development, and testing under the program.
