Army's Dark Eagle Hypersonic Program Slips Into 2026

US falls behind in missile race, deployment of Dark Eagle hypersonic missile delayed

BLUF

The Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), designated Dark Eagle in April 2025, has missed its third consecutive fielding deadline, with deployment now pushed to early 2026. While successful flight tests in June and December 2024 validated the missile's basic functionality, persistent technical challenges, operational test deficiencies, and dramatic cost growth—with the first battery now estimated at $2.7 billion—have plagued a program that has consumed over $12 billion since 2018 while the U.S. remains without a fielded hypersonic weapon as China and Russia deploy operational systems.

Technical and Cost Challenges Mount

Third Consecutive Missed Deadline Highlights Persistent Development Hurdles for Critical Long-Range Strike Capability

The U.S. Army has confirmed it will miss its end-of-2025 target for fielding the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW)—officially designated Dark Eagle—marking the third consecutive schedule slippage for the service's highest-priority modernization effort. Deployment has now been pushed to early 2026, according to a January 2026 Army statement, leaving the United States without an operational ground-based hypersonic weapon as adversary nations field increasingly capable systems.

The delay comes despite successful end-to-end flight tests in June and December 2024 that validated the weapon system's core functionality, and follows missed fielding targets in September 2023 and September 2025. The program, which has received more than $12 billion in funding since 2018, now faces intensified scrutiny over cost growth, operational effectiveness questions, and the adequacy of testing protocols required for operational certification.

"Fielding activities include the required integration, safety, and readiness steps to ensure soldiers receive a system that is reliable, sustainable, and effective in operational environments and are on track for completion in early 2026," Army officials stated this week. The service emphasized its commitment to "rigorous testing, training, and system maturity to support successful operational employment."

Recent Test Successes Tempered by Operational Readiness Concerns

Dark Eagle achieved critical milestones in 2024 with two successful flight tests that demonstrated the weapon system's technical viability after years of setbacks. On June 28, 2024, the Department of Defense announced a successful end-to-end test of the All-Up Round (AUR) launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, with the missile traveling more than 2,000 miles to a target in the Marshall Islands.

The December 12, 2024 test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station proved even more significant, marking the first live-fire event integrating the complete LRHW system—including the Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) and Battery Operations Center in operational configuration. The success represented a programmatic turning point after multiple aborted attempts throughout 2023 that had been attributed to launcher mechanical problems.

Following the December test, the Army formally designated the LRHW as "Dark Eagle" on April 24, 2025. According to Patrick Mason, senior official performing duties of Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, the name reflects the weapon's ability to "disintegrate adversary capabilities," with the eagle symbolizing the system's "speed, accuracy, and versatility."

However, Pentagon testing officials have raised significant questions about the weapon system's operational readiness despite successful flight demonstrations. The Director, Operational Test & Evaluation's (DOT&E) 2024 Annual Report delivered a stark assessment: "There is not enough data available to assess the operational effectiveness, lethality, suitability, and survivability of the LRHW system."

The DOT&E report specifically warned that "uncertainty in weaponeering tools could result in excessive employment requirements or failure to meet warfighter objectives"—meaning commanders might need to expend multiple missiles, each costing over $41 million, against single targets to ensure destruction. As of October 2025, DOT&E confirmed it had "not conducted an end-to-end operational assessment" of Dark Eagle and lacked data to evaluate its combat effectiveness across multiple dimensions.

Escalating Costs and Production Constraints

Cost growth has emerged as a critical concern for Dark Eagle's long-term viability. According to the Government Accountability Office's June 2025 Weapons System Annual Assessment, the estimated cost of fielding just the first prototype battery increased by $150 million in a single year—from $2.54 billion in January 2024 to $2.69 billion in January 2025. The Army attributed this growth to rising missile costs and the need for investigations and retesting following earlier failures.

Current estimates place the first operational battery cost at approximately $2.7 billion, including missiles and associated support equipment. On a per-unit basis, Army officials have acknowledged that the first batch of eight missiles procured in FY2025 will exceed the Congressional Budget Office's 2023 estimate of $41 million per missile—already substantially more expensive than a Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile at approximately $31 million.

The Army's FY2025 budget request included $1.282 billion for the LRHW program, comprising $744 million for production of Battery 3 ground support equipment and eight All-Up Round plus Canister (AUR+C) missiles, plus $538 million for research, development, test, and evaluation. Army officials have expressed hope that costs will decrease as production quantities increase, though congressional oversight of the program's cost trajectory has intensified.

In June 2025 testimony before Congress, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George acknowledged cost pressures, stating the service was preparing to test "long-range missiles that are a tenth of the price" as an alternative to address magazine depth concerns. The comment underscored growing recognition that Dark Eagle's extreme cost limits procurement quantities and operational flexibility.

Deployment Plans and Strategic Posture

Despite the fielding delay, the Army activated the first Dark Eagle battery on December 17, 2025—assigned to the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Long Range Fires Battalion, 1st Multi-Domain Task Force at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. However, the service did not publicly disclose at that time that operational missiles were not yet ready for deployment with the unit, which has been conducting crew training and operational integration activities.

Army program officials confirmed that the second Dark Eagle battery remains on schedule for fielding in the fourth quarter of FY2026. This battery, being procured through the Middle Tier Acquisition rapid fielding pathway, will incorporate missiles with minor modifications that the Army plans to flight test for the first time in the fourth quarter of FY2025. Battery 3 ground support equipment procurement experienced delays due to funding constraints, slipping from first quarter FY2024 to third quarter FY2025.

The weapon system has been demonstrated in multiple operational contexts during 2024-2025. In August 2024, soldiers from the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force showcased Dark Eagle capabilities during Exercise Bamboo Eagle 24-3 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. More significantly, in mid-2025 the Army deployed two Dark Eagle launchers to Australia for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025—the first forward deployment of the system outside the continental United States and a clear signal of intended operational employment in the Indo-Pacific theater.

Army officials have stated publicly that Dark Eagle's reported 3,500-kilometer range enables strikes against mainland China from forward-deployed positions in Japan, Guam, or the Philippines. During a December 2025 briefing, Francisco Lozano, Director of Hypersonic, Directed Energy, Space and Rapid Acquisition, told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Dark Eagle could reach "mainland China from Guam," Moscow from London, and Tehran from Qatar. This range significantly exceeds previously stated figures of 1,725 miles (2,775 kilometers), though it remains unclear whether the increase reflects program evolution or intentional earlier obfuscation.

Technical Architecture and Industrial Base

Dark Eagle consists of a two-stage solid rocket booster paired with the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB), developed jointly by the Army and Navy. Lockheed Martin serves as prime contractor for the integrated system, with Dynetics (a Leidos subsidiary) manufacturing the hypersonic glide body and Aerojet Rocketdyne providing booster propulsion.

The C-HGB design traces its lineage to the Alternate Re-Entry System developed by Sandia National Laboratories and tested during the Army's earlier Advanced Hypersonic Weapon program. Once the booster accelerates the glide body to hypersonic speeds exceeding Mach 5—with reported peak velocity of Mach 17—the unpowered glide body separates and maneuvers toward its target at high speed through atmospheric flight, complicating interception by existing air defense systems.

Each operational Dark Eagle battery comprises four TELs mounted on modified M870A4 trailers (each carrying two missile canisters), a Battery Operations Center for command and control, and supporting reload and logistics vehicles. The TELs are towed by M983A4 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT), providing road-mobile launch capability designed to enhance survivability through rapid repositioning.

The weapon employs a kinetic energy warhead weighing less than 30 pounds—relatively small for a long-range munition—but designed to leverage extreme impact velocity. Army officials have stated the warhead can devastate an area approximately the size of a parking lot, though DOT&E's concerns about lethality assessment suggest uncertainty about effectiveness against various target types remains.

Joint Service Integration and Naval Variant

The Army's Dark Eagle program operates in close coordination with the Navy's Intermediate-Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) effort, which will deploy the same AUR+C missile from surface and submarine platforms. The Navy intends to field IRCPS aboard its three Zumwalt-class destroyers beginning in 2025, with installation planned aboard Block V Virginia-class submarines starting in 2028.

This joint development approach was intended to reduce costs and accelerate fielding by sharing common components and leveraging economies of scale. However, technical problems affecting the shared C-HGB and booster stack have impacted both services. Previous plans to field IRCPS on guided-missile variants of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines were scrapped due to funding delays and the submarines' impending retirement.

The Navy's program has experienced its own challenges. A 2022 IRCPS test in Hawaii ended in failure after a launch sequence malfunction, and a 2023 test "experienced an in-flight anomaly that prevented data collection for portions of the planned flight profile," according to DOT&E. Navy officials determined the cause and implemented corrective actions, but the incidents contributed to overall program delays.

Tortured Development History

Dark Eagle's path to its current status has been marked by persistent setbacks that delayed initial fielding by at least two years from original 2023 projections. Early C-HGB flight tests in October 2017 and March 2020 demonstrated promising results, but problems emerged during integration into the complete weapon system.

In October 2021, a booster failure during testing prevented the C-HGB from deploying in what officials termed a "no test." A June 2022 Hawaii test of the complete AUR also ended in failure after ignition problems. The most frustrating setbacks occurred throughout 2023, when the Army scrubbed three scheduled launches—in March, September, and October—due to what Assistant Secretary of the Army Douglas Bush characterized as "mechanical engineering problems" with the Lockheed Martin-produced launcher rather than the missile itself.

Bush revealed that automated pre-flight checks identified battery activation failures and other launcher-related issues that prevented test execution. The repeated cancellations forced the Army to acknowledge it would miss its ambitious FY2023 fielding target, fueling concerns about falling behind rival nations in hypersonic capabilities.

The breakthrough came with successful 2024 tests that validated fixes to launcher and integration issues, though questions about operational effectiveness and lethality persist pending additional testing against representative targets in contested environments.

Strategic Competition and Deterrence Implications

Dark Eagle's development occurs against a backdrop of aggressive hypersonic weapons deployment by near-peer competitors. China has fielded multiple operational systems including the DF-17 medium-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle, first unveiled in 2019 and designed to penetrate advanced air defenses and threaten high-value targets such as aircraft carriers. Chinese capabilities reportedly include work on fractional orbital bombardment systems that could approach targets from unexpected vectors.

Russia has deployed the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle on intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of speeds up to Mach 20 with evasive maneuvering, and the Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic missile. Significantly, Russia has employed Kinzhal operationally during the war in Ukraine, demonstrating willingness to use such weapons in combat and providing real-world performance data unavailable to Western systems still in development.

The absence of a deployed U.S. ground-based hypersonic weapon represents a capability gap that concerns defense officials and congressional overseers. Sen. Angus King emphasized during March 2025 Senate Armed Services Subcommittee testimony that "not only do we need a hypersonic weapon for deterrent possibilities, but we need hypersonic defense."

Beyond the immediate China-Russia competition, other nations including India, South Korea, Japan, and Australia are pursuing hypersonic capabilities, potentially reshaping regional strategic balances. The proliferation raises complex arms control and strategic stability questions, with Russia citing planned U.S. intermediate-range deployments—including Dark Eagle forward basing—as security concerns.

Operational Concept and Doctrinal Integration

Dark Eagle is designed to provide theater commanders with long-range precision strike capability against time-sensitive, high-value targets in anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) environments. Primary mission sets include:

• Suppression of adversary integrated air defense systems (IADS)
• Strikes against enemy command and control nodes
• Counter-theater ballistic missile battery attacks
• Engagement of mobile high-value assets before repositioning
• Opening corridors for follow-on joint force operations

The weapon system represents a cornerstone of the Army's Multi-Domain Operations doctrine, intended to enable synchronized effects across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. Its road-mobile configuration provides operational flexibility and survivability through rapid shoot-and-scoot tactics, though the system requires sophisticated command and control infrastructure and extensive logistical support chains.

Army planners envision deploying Dark Eagle batteries with Multi-Domain Task Forces positioned forward in contested theaters, particularly the Indo-Pacific. The weapon's reported ability to hold mainland China targets at risk from allied territories in Japan and the Philippines adds a critical dimension to theater deterrence architectures, though such deployments carry significant geopolitical implications and could accelerate regional arms competition.

Path Forward and Programmatic Uncertainties

As the Army pushes toward early 2026 fielding, multiple critical activities remain: additional flight testing of modified missile configurations, operational suitability assessments incorporating representative targets and threat environments, lethality validation through realistic testing, cybersecurity evaluation across the weapon system, and completion of integration and safety certification processes.

DOT&E has outlined specific testing requirements including: operational demonstrations with strategic-level mission planning, full-spectrum contested environment evaluation, incorporation of representative targets, and validated modeling and simulation combined with ground and subscale test data.

The cost-capability tradeoff will likely dominate future program decisions. At current unit costs exceeding $41 million per missile, with each battery requiring eight missiles plus extensive support infrastructure totaling $2.7 billion, the Army faces difficult choices about procurement quantities versus other modernization priorities. The service has requested $1.3 billion for Dark Eagle in FY2025, but sustained funding at these levels competes with programs including next-generation combat vehicles, extended-range artillery, and air defense modernization.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George's reference to pursuing alternative long-range fires at "a tenth of the price" suggests growing recognition that hypersonic weapons, while technologically impressive and strategically valuable, may prove too expensive for deep magazines. The Pentagon may ultimately field Dark Eagle in limited quantities for strategic employment against critical nodes while relying on less expensive systems for broader fires requirements.

The successful transition of program oversight from the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office to Program Executive Office Missiles & Space following initial fielding will test whether the weapon system can achieve production stability and cost reduction through increased manufacturing scale.

Implications for U.S. Hypersonic Portfolio

Dark Eagle's progress—or lack thereof—has implications beyond the Army program. With the apparent 2023 cancellation of the Air Force's AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), Dark Eagle appears positioned to become the U.S. military's first operational novel hypersonic weapon, though uncertainty about ARRW's status and potential follow-on efforts persists.

The joint Army-Navy approach represented an attempt to accelerate hypersonic fielding through shared development and procurement, but technical challenges have affected both services. As the Navy proceeds with IRCPS installation on Zumwalt-class destroyers and Virginia-class submarines, the program's success will depend substantially on resolving issues identified in Army testing and operational evaluation.

Defense Secretary Hegseth has emphasized the need to accelerate weapons deployment and reform what he characterizes as overly cautious acquisition processes. Dark Eagle's multiple missed deadlines and extended development timeline exemplify the challenges facing Pentagon modernization efforts, particularly for revolutionary technologies operating at the boundaries of physics and engineering feasibility.

The program illustrates fundamental tensions in defense acquisition between rapid fielding imperatives driven by strategic competition and methodical developmental approaches required for complex, unforgiving weapon systems. Hypersonic missiles must function reliably across extreme temperature and velocity regimes while maintaining precision guidance—requirements that leave little margin for error and demand extensive testing and validation.

As Dark Eagle moves toward operational status in 2026, its performance will significantly influence future hypersonic weapons programs, shape congressional willingness to fund expensive developmental systems, and affect strategic calculations about long-range precision fires in future conflicts. The weapon system's ultimate success will be measured not merely by technical achievement but by its contribution to operational effectiveness, strategic deterrence, and military advantage relative to cost and opportunity costs of alternative capabilities.

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Verified Sources

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Note: All sources represent publicly available information current as of January 2026. Some DOD and congressional documents may require official access channels.