Dark Eagle Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW)
Land-Based Hypersonic Missile [LBHM]
With the cancellation of the AGM-183A of the US Air Force and the slower-than-expected progress of the Conventional Prompt Strike Weapon (CPS) of the US Navy, the "Dark Hawk" (LRHW) jointly developed by the US Army and Navy has almost become the only hypersonic weapon project of the US military. Fortunately, this only one is still doing well. On 12 December 2024, the US Department of Defense announced that the "Dark Hawk" had completed an "end-to-end" flight test at Cape Canaveral, Florida. If the maximum speed of 20 Mach and the maximum range of more than 4,450 kilometers are true, then the US military finally has a preliminary hypersonic weapon that can be used.
The development history of the United States' hypersonic weapons can be said to be a perfect interpretation of what it means to get up early and catch the late harvest. Shortly after the end of World War II, the United States began to develop aircraft with speeds above Mach 3. The The development history of the United States' hypersonic weapons can be said to be a perfect interpretation of what it means to get up early and catch the late harvest. Shortly after the end of World War II, the United States began to develop aircraft with speeds above Mach 3.
However, in the first decade of the 21st century, the US military was invincible, and the US military equipment and combat theories were focused on counter-terrorism. It was not until it was confirmed that China and Russia had made key breakthroughs in medium-range hypersonic weapons, and Russia had verified the power of such weapons on the battlefield, that the United States began to catch up in time.
The US military was scheduled to test the US Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), developed by Lockheed Martin, over the Caribbean in the last week of July 2024. A US defense official told Sputnik on 29 Jul 2024 that the Army and Navy had recently initiated a test of a conventional hypersonic system but avoided commenting on whether the test was successful. "The US Army and Navy recently initiated a test of a conventional hypersonic system at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida," the official said. "This test was an essential benchmark in the development of operational hypersonic technology."
Similar to precision weapons being developed by the Air Force and Navy, the Army is developing its own unique hypersonic weapon. Hypersonic weapons move five times faster than the speed of sound and are designed to potentially deliver a precision-guided airstrike anywhere in the world within an hour.
This land-based, truck-launched system is armed with hypersonic missiles that can travel well over 3,800 miles per hour. They can reach the top of the Earth’s atmosphere and remain just beyond the range of air and missile defense systems until they are ready to strike, and by then it’s too late to react. Extremely accurate, ultrafast, maneuverable and survivable, hypersonics can strike anywhere in the world within minutes. For the battery, the task force and the U.S. Army, they provide a critical strategic weapon and a powerful deterrent against adversary capabilities.
Around since the early 2000s, hypersonic technology itself is not new, yet it is newly important. Today the United States is battling to outpace similar efforts from our adversaries. To address those threats, the Army is accelerating the fielding of its own long-range hypersonic weapon to deliver, by fiscal year 2023, an experimental prototype with residual combat capability - meaning Soldiers have it and can use it in combat if needed - to a unit of action. In this case, the unit is a battery in a strategic fires battalion.
The Army’s path for fast-tracking both hypersonics and directed-energy systems began in late 2018, when it renamed and refocused the efforts of the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO). As part of the overall Army modernization strategy, Army leaders asked RCCTO to lead the hypersonic and directed-energy efforts as they transition from the science and technology (S&T) community and into the hands of operational units.
In March 2019, the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army directed the accelerated delivery of a prototype ground-launched hypersonic weapon with residual combat capability by Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. To execute this strategy, the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) has selected two prime contractors to build and integrate components of the LRHW prototype.
The top modernization priority --- Long-Range Precision Fires -- is heavily focused on to reclaim overmatch against near-peer competitors. The Army plans to invest $1.2 billion over the next five years toward a hypersonic weapon, which is being developed in collaboration with the Air Force and Navy under 0604182A / HX1 Land-Based Hypersonic Missile. A flight test of a land-based hypersonic missile, which can travel five times the speed of sound, is expected in fiscal 2023, Esper said. "It's a game-changer," Army Secretary Mark T. Esper said April 10, 2019. "It is a very difficult system to defend against due to its maneuverability and due to its speed and profile."
The Army Hypersonic Project Office will work with the Weapon System Integration Contractor to get through Systems Requirements Review and move towards a Preliminary Design Review for the system. Funding will be used to order CHGBs and boosters for integration into All Up Rounds starting in FY21. Project HX1 funds USASMDC/ARSTRAT to prototype a Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) System is to provide the Army with a prototype strategic attack weapon system to defeat Anti Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) capabilities, suppress adversary Long Range Fires, and engage other high payoff/time sensitive targets. The LRHW Integrated System contractor will integrate Common Hypersonic Glide Bodies (CHGBs) with 2 stage boosters into canisters to create LRHW All Up Rounds (AUR) and a build a prototype LRHW System. A leave behind prototype LRHW system is expected as an Early Operational Capability (EOC). The AUR, with a case diameter of 34.5 inches (0.887 meters), would be launched from a 10 meter long transporter, erector, launcher [TEL] container. The two-container semi-trailer launcher is a modified M870 semi-trailer used in the Patriot SAM launcher, towed by an Oshkosh M983A4 8x8 tractor.
Collaborating across services, agencies and with the Office of the Secretary of Defense through a Joint Service Memorandum of Agreement on design, development, testing and production, the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are all accelerating initiatives to field hypersonic weapon systems using a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB). The Navy leads design of the C-HGB, while the Army will lead production and build a commercial industrial base. This cooperation enables the services to leverage one another’s technologies as much as possible, while tailoring them to meet specific design and requirements for air, land and sea.
Col. John Rafferty, director of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, discussed the development of these new long-range precision weapons at the Association of the U.S. Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition, 09 October 2018. Rafferty said the services are collaborating on creating a common "hypersonic glide body," to provide a means for each service to deploy their hypersonic weaponry. He said the services will work alongside each other to develop the hypersonic weapons capability.
"We're going to support the Space and Missile Defense Command's pursuit of the long-range hypersonic weapon and we'll help by developing the operational concept," Rafferty said. "But essentially what we're going to do is make sure that Soldiers are trained and ready to man the system when fielded, and that a mission-command structure and fire-control framework is in place.
On 29 August 2019, the Army awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement to Dynetics in the amount of $351.6 million to produce the first commercially manufactured set of prototype Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) systems. Also on August 29, the Army awarded a second OTA agreement to Lockheed Martin in the amount of $347.0 million as the LRHW prototype system integrator.
Starting in 2020, the Army will participate in a series of joint tests with the Navy, Air Force and MDA, focusing on range, environmental extremes and contested environments. The tests will be complemented by training events so Soldiers can learn to employ the new technology. "In order to achieve the disintegration and penetration effect, we need to have a mix of weapons, and exquisite, very expensive, hypersonic missiles with tremendous kinetic effect that are well-suited for strategic infrastructure and hardened targets," he said.
Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC) Members have been selected to support Common Hypersonic Glide Body (CHGB) production and Long Range Hypersonic Weapon Integration Efforts. There will be opportunities in the future for Thermal Protection System (TPS) industrial base expansion and contracting for TPS production.
The task of providing command and control for ‘Dark Eagle’ operations falls to the Battery Operations Center, equipped with an AFATDS (Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System) which prioritizes targets received from various sensors and performs attack analysis using situational data combined with commander's guidance to provide timely, accurate and coordinated fire support options against preplanned and time-sensitive targets.
The first complexes of American Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles can probably be deployed in the future in the western part of the United States at a base in Washington state. This was evidenced by images and accompanying information released by the US Army. On 07 October 2021, the Pentagon's photo and video distribution service posted photographs of the "equipment for long-range hypersonic missiles." The accompanying information indicates that the filming location is the Lewis McCord base in Washington state, the images themselves, according to metadata, were taken in mid-September 2021.
According to the Internet publication The War Zone, the materials show trailers of prototype launchers, a tractor and "other important components of the complexes", but the hypersonic missiles themselves have not yet been delivered. Previously, the Pentagon did not expand on the possible location of the future deployment of Dark Eagle systems, the publication added. The War Zone points out that the delivered components are so far intended only for the familiarization of military personnel with them. The Pentagon hopes to begin test launches of the guided missile in fiscal 2022, which began on October 1. According to the plans of the military, the first complexes should enter service in the 2023 financial year.
The U.S. Army equipped the I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, with the nation’s first prototype hypersonic ground equipment. Known as the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, this land-based, ground-launched system will provide a critical weapon and powerful deterrent to adversaries. In August, Robert Strider, director of the American hypersonic weapons program, said that the Dark Eagle will be used in batteries of four installations, each of which has two missiles. As previously noted by the magazine "National Interest", the combination of the missile's hypersonic speed and the mobility of the complexes can become a serious threat to the defense of potential adversaries.
Extremely accurate, exceptionally fast, maneuverable and survivable, hypersonics introduce a lethal combination that enable the long-range, rapid defeat of time-critical and high-value targets. Part of the Army’s No. 1 modernization priority, Long-Range Precision Fires, hypersonics are also one of the highest-priority modernization areas the Department of Defense is pursuing in its push for integrated deterrence.
The Army celebrated the delivery of the LRHW hardware with a ceremony at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on 07 October 2021. “Today marks an important milestone in equipping our nation’s first hypersonic battery,” said Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, Director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space and Rapid Acquisition, who also oversees the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. “From a blank piece of paper in March 2019, we – along with our industry partners and joint services – delivered this hardware in just over two years. Now, Soldiers can begin training.”
Delivery of the hardware began in March 2021 and finished at the end of September 2021. The delivery includes a battery operations center, four transporter erector launchers, and modified trucks and trailers that make up the LRHW ground equipment. The fielding to the 5-3 FA will be complete in fiscal year 2023. Delivering the ground hardware first will allow the Soldiers to train on the equipment, create doctrine for this first-ever system, and develop tactics, techniques and procedures.
In executing hypersonics development and testing, the Army is closely linked with its joint service partners. In March 2020, the Army began a series of joint tests, focusing on range, environmental extremes and contested environments. The tests will be complemented by training events as the Soldiers learn to employ the new technology. Throughout the prototyping effort, Soldier-centered design touch-points were embedded and were influential in developing the system. Soldiers are at the center of this effort and are a critical part of the design effort.
On 24 April 2025, the US Army announced "Dark Eagle" as the popular name for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon following the system's successful end-to-end flight test of the common All-Up Round the previous December. Part of the name pays tribute to the eagle — a master hunter known for its speed, stealth and agility — due to the LRHW's combination of velocity, accuracy, maneuverability, survivability and versatility. In addition, the bald eagle — the US national bird — represents independence, strength and freedom. The word "dark" embodies the LRHW's ability to dis-integrate adversary capabilities, including anti-access/area-denial systems, communications capacity, long-range fires and other high-payoff/time-critical targets. The Dark Eagle brings to mind the power and determination of the United States and its Army as it represents the spirit and lethality of the Army and Navy's hypersonic weapon endeavors.
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