Monday, October 13, 2025

Dark Eagle Takes Flight


US Army Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon: Program Status - DEFCROS News

Dark Eagle Takes Flight: The US Army's Race to Deploy Hypersonic Weapons

The Australian outback had never witnessed anything quite like it. In July 2025, during Exercise Talisman Sabre, American soldiers prepared to showcase a weapon that represented the future of warfare—one that could strike targets thousands of miles away in mere minutes, traveling at speeds that made interception nearly impossible.

The Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, now officially christened "Dark Eagle," had finally arrived on the world stage.

SIDEBAR: The Industrial Team Behind Dark Eagle

The Dark Eagle program represents one of the most complex public-private partnerships in modern weapons development, bringing together leading defense contractors and national laboratories.

Prime Contractors

Dynetics (Leidos Subsidiary) Dynetics serves as the prime contractor for the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body, awarded a $351.6 million contract in 2019 to produce 20 glide body assemblies for use by the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency. In November 2024, Dynetics received a $670.5 million contract to build the C-HGB and thermal protection system for the US Army, with work to be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, through October 2029. As prime contractor, Dynetics provides program and supplier management, procurement, assembly, integration and testing, electrical and mechanical manufacturing, and systems engineering for the C-HGB.

Lockheed Martin In August 2019, the Army awarded Lockheed Martin an Other Transaction Authority agreement in the amount of $347.0 million as the LRHW prototype system integrator. Lockheed Martin builds the booster as well as assembles the missile and launch equipment. The company oversees the integration of the Army's ground-based variant and coordinates work across its Alabama, Colorado, and California facilities.

Key Subcontractors

Northrop Grumman The missile component of the LRHW is reportedly being developed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, with Northrop Grumman contributing critical booster technology and systems integration expertise.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems General Atomics is part of the Dynetics-led team working on the C-HGB, applying its extensive experience in manufacturing complex systems and leveraging its longstanding relationship with the national laboratories.

Raytheon (RTX) Raytheon is working closely with Dynetics and its industry partners to quickly field the hypersonic weapon, with Dr. Thomas Bussing, Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president, stating the company is "aggressively working to produce offensive and defensive solutions".

Government Partners

Sandia National Laboratories Dynetics initially worked with Sandia National Laboratories to learn build of the glide body. The design of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body is based on the previously developed Alternate Re-Entry System, which was tested in the early 2010s as part of the Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon program, with the Alternate Re-Entry System itself based on the Sandia Winged Energetic Reentry Vehicle Experiment (SWERVE) prototype developed by Sandia National Laboratories in the 1980s.

Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) The Army RCCTO is responsible for delivering the prototype LRHW battery, consisting of four trucks with launchers, hypersonic missile rounds, and a command and control system.

Joint Development Structure

The Army is working in close collaboration with the other services through a Joint Service Memorandum of Agreement on hypersonics design, development, testing and production. As part of the agreement, the Army will execute production of the C-HGB for all services, while the Navy leads the glide body design. This joint cooperation allows the services to leverage technologies while tailoring them to meet specific air, land, and sea requirements.

In December 2021, Dynetics was also awarded a $478,598,908 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop Hypersonic Thermal Protection System prototypes for the U.S. Army's RCCTO, with the TPS shielding elements of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon system and the Navy Conventional Prompt Strike system from extreme environments seen during flight.

The program represents a transition from government laboratory development to commercial production, establishing an industrial base for hypersonics within the United States that will support both current and future weapons systems.

The Rocky Beginning

The journey to this moment had been anything but smooth. When the Army launched its hypersonic prototyping initiative in 2019, optimism ran high. The vision was clear: develop a mobile ground-launched weapon system capable of neutralizing enemy defenses, suppressing long-range fires, and engaging critical targets before adversaries could react.

The system was designed to provide the Army with a strategic attack weapon to defeat Anti-Access/Area Denial capabilities, suppress adversary long-range fires, and engage high-value, time-critical targets, with a reported range of 1,725 miles.

But ambition met reality hard. On October 21, 2021, the booster rocket carrying the Common Hypersonic Glide Body vehicle reportedly failed a test flight, resulting in what defense officials characterized as a "no test" as the C-HGB had no chance to deploy. A June 2022 test of the entire LRHW missile also resulted in failure. In October 2022, the Department of Defense delayed a scheduled LRHW test in order to assess the root cause of the June failure.

In 2023, two tests were canceled after problems were found in the launcher and launch sequence. On September 7, 2023, a test launch of the LRHW system was canceled due to an unspecified failure of pre-flight checks.

The Nature of Missile Development

Dark Eagle's struggles placed it in distinguished company. The history of advanced missile development is littered with initial failures and setbacks that proved to be stepping stones to eventual success. The Tomahawk cruise missile, now a mainstay of U.S. military operations, experienced numerous test failures in the late 1970s and early 1980s before becoming operational. The Patriot air defense system underwent extensive redesigns following operational issues during the Gulf War. More recently, the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) faced multiple test delays before entering service, while the Standard Missile-6 required years of additional development to achieve its current multi-mission capabilities.

Even America's intercontinental ballistic missile programs—the ultimate expressions of Cold War technological prowess—experienced catastrophic early failures. The Atlas and Titan ICBMs of the 1950s and 1960s saw numerous launch pad explosions and in-flight failures before achieving reliability. The aerospace industry learned long ago that pushing the boundaries of physics and engineering inevitably involves setbacks.

According to a 2023 Congressional Budget Office Study, "Extensive flight testing is necessary to shield hypersonic missiles' sensitive electronics, to understand how various materials perform, and predict aerodynamics at sustained temperatures as high as 3,000° Fahrenheit". The extreme conditions faced by hypersonic vehicles—traveling at five times the speed of sound while enduring temperatures that can melt steel—make development particularly challenging.

Engineers at Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos, worked tirelessly on the Common Hypersonic Glide Body—the heart of the weapon. Under a contract awarded in 2019, Dynetics led a team including General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon to produce 20 glide body assemblies for use by the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency. The design of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body with a kinetic energy projectile warhead is based on the previously developed Alternate Re-Entry System, which was tested in the early 2010s as part of the Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon program.

Breakthrough in the Pacific

The turning point came on June 28, 2024. The Department of Defense announced a successful recent end-to-end test of the US Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon all-up round and the US Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike, launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, landing more than 2000 miles away in the Marshall Islands.

Six months later, the Army conducted its most ambitious test yet. On December 12, 2024, at Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral, the Army and Navy announced that the Dark Eagle had completed a successful end-to-end flight test. This was the first live-fire event for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon system using a Battery Operations Center and a Transporter Erector Launcher.

Lockheed Martin, overseeing the integration of the Army's ground-based variant, received authorization to proceed with production for the first operational battery. The path forward was finally clear.

The Name and the Mission

On April 24, 2025, the Army formally designated the LRHW as the Dark Eagle. The symbolism was potent: "Dark" was chosen to embody the weapon's ability to "disintegrate adversary capabilities," while "eagle" paid tribute to the master hunter, a nod to the system's promised combination of speed, accuracy, maneuverability, and survivability.

The weapon's specifications were formidable. The LRHW is comprised of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body and the Navy 34.5-inch booster, with the missile component developed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. A LRHW battery consists of four Transporter Erector Launchers on modified M870A4 trailers, each equipped with two All Up Round plus Canister missiles (eight in total), one Battery Operations Center for command and control, and a BOC support vehicle.

The 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, was designated to operate the first battery of eight LRHW missiles, part of the Army's 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.

Historic Overseas Deployment

The 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force, based in Hawaii, transported the system to Australia for Talisman Sabre 2025, marking the weapon's first overseas appearance. The three-week biennial exercise concluded in August and involved more than 40,000 troops from the United States, Australia and 17 other nations across Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, stated that the Talisman Sabre deployment "validates the Army's ability to deploy, position, and exercise command and control of the system in a forward environment". Defense Department photos show soldiers from B Battery (Dark Eagle), 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment briefing allied troops about the weapon on July 9.

Lt. Gen. Joel Vowell, deputy commander of U.S. Army Pacific, told Stars and Stripes that the U.S. Army is collaborating with Australia's 10th Brigade in Adelaide, South Australia, to plan the deployment of hypersonic weapons.

Whether live missiles made the journey to Australia remained unclear, but the operational capability was unmistakable. The deployment drew strong reactions from Beijing. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that American missiles disrupted regional security and could spark an arms race between the two powers.

The Cost Challenge

The program's price tag has been substantial. According to the Government Accountability Office's June 11, 2025, Weapons System Annual Assessment, the estimated cost of fielding the first LRHW battery increased by $150 million since the previous year, from $2.54 billion in January 2024 to $2.69 billion in January 2025. The Army attributed the cost growth to increases in the cost of the missiles and testing issues that resulted in investigations and retests.

According to a January 2023 Congressional Budget Office study, purchasing 300 Intermediate-Range Hypersonic Boost-Glide Missiles similar to the LRHW was estimated to cost $41 million per missile in 2023 dollars. The Army's FY2025 budget request for the program totaled $1.282 billion, broken down into $744 million for missile procurement and $538 million for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation.

This extreme cost is driving a search for alternatives. During June 4 and 5, 2025, Army Posture testimony to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George stated regarding the LRHW: "We are getting ready to do some tests this summer, with long-range missiles that are a tenth of" the cost. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said the service is looking for alternative (and possibly cheaper) hypersonic weapons.

The Road Ahead

As of February 2025, the Army intended to field the LRHW missile to the first unit by the end of FY2025. According to the GAO's June 2025 assessment, production of a full battery set of eight hypersonic missiles was expected to take 11 months. In April 2025, Major General Francisco Lozano, US Army PEO Missiles and Space, predicted delivery of the first missile to the first battery in May 2025, with missiles continuing to be delivered one-by-one as they are assembled.

Program officials stated that the second battery, which is part of the rapid fielding Middle Tier Acquisition effort, is on schedule to be fielded in the fourth quarter of FY2026. Future developments include additional LRHW batteries for the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force in Wiesbaden, Germany, and the 3rd MDTF in Hawaii, with both task forces expected to be operational by FY2027.

The GAO's 2025 Assessment notes that fielding the second battery will involve a missile with minor modifications, with flight tests of the modified weapon slated to begin in the fourth quarter of FY2025.

The Navy's parallel program adds another dimension. The Navy intends to field the weapon aboard its Zumwalt-class destroyers by 2025 and later on its Block V Virginia-class submarines in 2028. USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) is the first destroyer that will be outfitted with the Conventional Prompt Strike capability, with the Navy wanting to finish installing the hypersonic missiles on the three ships by the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2028.

Strategic Implications

Dark Eagle represents more than just a new weapon system. It symbolizes America's entry into a new era of warfare, one where hypersonic speeds and extreme ranges reshape strategic calculations. The deployment comes as the United States works to close what many perceive as a "hypersonic gap" with China and Russia, both of which have already fielded operational systems.

China's DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle mounted on a ballistic missile was first unveiled in 2019, and the PLA Navy has begun fielding the YJ-21, a ship-launched hypersonic anti-ship missile capable of striking at extended ranges. Russia's Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, which can be mounted on intercontinental ballistic missiles, is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 20 while performing evasive maneuvers, and the Kinzhal, an air-launched ballistic missile, has seen use in real-world combat conditions.

Six years after the program began, the Army is finally approaching its fielding objectives. The timeline has stretched well beyond initial hopes—the Army originally said it would field the first battery in fiscal year 2023—but as military analysts note, it remains faster than standard missile development programs typically achieve.

In bunkers and command centers across potential flashpoints—from Eastern Europe to the Taiwan Strait—military planners on all sides are recalculating their assumptions. The age of the hypersonic weapon has arrived, and Dark Eagle is leading the charge.

Sources

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Dark Eagle Takes Flight

US Army Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon: Program Status - DEFCROS News Dark Eagle Takes Flight: The US Army's Race to Deploy Hypersonic Wea...