The San Diego-based destroyer USS Michael Monsoor is facing a big delay in becoming one of the first warships in the world to be equipped with hypersonic missiles, a high-speed weapon meant to improve the Navy’s ability to strike heavily defended, long-distance targets.
The General Accountability Office says in a new report that the Navy’s efforts to equip the Monsoor and two other Zumwalt-class destroyers with the missiles have fallen two years behind schedule, largely because of quality and production issues.
The Monsoor had been scheduled to travel to a shipyard in Mississippi this year to be outfitted for hypersonic missiles. But now it is unclear when the overhaul will actually begin.