The U.S. Navy is making progress in deploying its first shipborne hypersonic weapon. Workers at a Mississippi shipyard have finished installing missile tubes on the USS Zumwalt that will replace twin turrets from a gun system that was never activated because it was too expensive.

The USS Zumwalt, the Navy’s $7.5 billion stealth destroyer, is being retrofitted to carry hypersonic missiles, marking the first deployment of such weapons on a U.S. warship.

The US is deploying a shipborn hypersonic missile battery to the USS Zumwalt, a destroyer once thought a major mistake.

Recent tests of the advanced weapons by both Russia and China have increased pressure on the US military to hasten their production.