The Drive:

The first-in-class stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt has live-fired a Standard Missile 2, or SM-2, for the first time ever. The Zumwalt class ships, also known by the hull number for the lead ship, DDG-1000, are set to be equipped with a unique variant of the SM-2, also known as the SM-2 Block IIIAZ. The need for this particular missile is tied to several controversial design decisions that the Pentagon and the Navy have made, over the years, to these ships, including those having to do with their radars, which may now be in line to be replaced, something The War Zone was first to report on last week.

Zumwalt fired the SM-2 from one of its Mk 57 Vertical Launch System (VLS) arrays, while on the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division Sea Test Range off the coast of Southern California, near Point Mugu, according to an official Navy release. The service said that the missile successfully intercepted a surrogate for an anti-ship cruise missile, but did not offer any additional details at this mock target. The Navy uses various target drones to simulate subsonic and supersonic cruise missiles…

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