Zumwalt fire during hypersonic upgrade

A fire aboard the USS Zumwalt injured three sailors Sunday night as the Navy’s first hypersonic-missile destroyer sat in a Mississippi shipyard. (news.usni.org) The fire was reported at about 9:45 p.m. on April 19 while Zumwalt was pierside at HII Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, according to USNI News and a Navy statement relayed to Stars and Stripes. The crew put out the fire, two sailors were treated on scene, and a third was taken to a local hospital; all three were reported in stable condition. (news.usni.org) (stripes.com) The Navy has not publicly identified where the fire started or how much damage it caused. Stars and Stripes reported on April 23 that the cause and extent of damage remain under investigation. (stripes.com) Hypersonic weapons are missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound. The Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike system uses a “cold-gas” launch, which means the missile is pushed clear of the ship before its rocket motor ignites. (navy.mil) (crsreports.congress.gov) Zumwalt matters because the Navy has been turning it into the first surface warship built to carry that weapon. Naval Sea Systems Command said the ship arrived at Ingalls on August 19, 2023, to begin a modernization period for Conventional Prompt Strike integration. (navsea.navy.mil) That overhaul replaced the ship’s two 155-millimeter Advanced Gun Systems with four 87-inch missile tubes. USNI News has reported those tubes are designed to carry 12 Common Hypersonic Glide Bodies in total, three per tube. (news.usni.org 1) (news.usni.org 2) The ship had already moved back into the water after more than a year of yard work. USNI News reported on December 6, 2024, that Ingalls had undocked Zumwalt after installing the large missile tubes needed for the hypersonic system. (news.usni.org) The Navy also advanced the missile program itself in 2025. On May 2, 2025, the service said it had completed a successful end-to-end flight test of the sea-based Conventional Prompt Strike launch approach that is planned for first fielding aboard Zumwalt. (navy.mil) Zumwalt is the lead ship in a class that shrank from 32 planned destroyers to three, and the Navy now describes the class as a platform for adding new systems and missions. The service’s fact file says the ships were built with extra power and space for future capabilities, a design choice now being tested in a shipyard as investigators work out what this week’s fire did to the program’s schedule. (navy.mil) (stripes.com)