Surface Navy 2026: ‘Golden Fleet' concept creates increased opportunities for expansion of weapon and munition types

USS Zumwalt is shown here undocking after being fitted for hypersonic missile systems. (HII)

As US Navy (USN) officials tout what they see as the potential for “Golden Fleet” operations, USN leadership and defence contractors note the opportunity for the expansion of types of weapons and munitions.

Despite recent USN success in places like the Red Sea, future conflicts will require more modern firepower, according to USN officials.

“Our carrier strike groups expended millions of pounds of ordnance against Houthi targets while successfully defending against dozens of attacks,” Admiral Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations (CNO), said on 14 January during his keynote speech the Surface Navy Association (SNA) National Symposium 2026.

“A navy SSGN [guided-missile submarine] recently participated in a long-range strike operation,” Adm Caudle noted.

However, speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event on 16 January, the day after the SNA symposium ended, Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, commander, Naval Surface Forces and Naval Surface Force, Pacific Fleet, noted future naval battles will be different.

“In the Red Sea, that's a very relatively small space,” Vice Adm McLane said. “And in that small space, you have something coming at you very fast. What if in the future, with a wide-open area you have something coming very fast – a hypersonic missile war.”

The navy is now working on hypersonic missile capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), which is part of the planned weapons loadout for the proposed new battleship class of the ‘Golden Fleet'.

“If we can build the battleship, you can put a lot of CPS missiles on that,” Vice Adm McLane said.

CPS missiles will not fit into launchers on current guided-missile destroyers (DDGs), he noted.