

Potential oversight questions for Congress include the following: The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy’s funding requests and proposed acquisition strategies for these three potential new weapons. Overcoming these challenges will likely require years of additional development work, and ultimate success in overcoming them is not guaranteed. military services.Īlthough the Navy in recent years has made considerable progress in developing SSLs, EMRG, and HVP, a number of significant development challenges remain. The HPV in particular has emerged as a program of particular interest to the Department of Defense (DOD), which is exploring the potential for using the weapon across multiple U.S. Rarely has the Navy had so many potential new types of surface- ship missile-defense weapons simultaneously available for development and potential deployment. If two or three of them are successfully developed and deployed, the result might be considered not just a game changer, but a revolution. The Navy is currently developing three potential new weapons that could improve the ability of its surface ships to defend themselves against enemy missiles-solid state lasers (SSLs), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the hypervelocity projectile (HVP).Īny one of these new weapon technologies, if successfully developed and deployed, might be regarded as a “game changer” for defending Navy surface ships against enemy missiles.
