By Johnny Franks, Warrior Editorial Fellow
The delay in deploying the United States Army’s Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) underscores substantial difficulties in advancing and deploying sophisticated military technology amid growing global tensions. The Dark Eagle system, a forefront technology designed to endow the U.S. military with hypersonic capabilities, has encountered delays mainly due to technical challenges during test phases.
Hypersonic weapons, achieving speeds beyond Mach 5 (over 3,836 miles per hour), navigate through various altitudes, making detection efforts complex. The Dark Eagle seeks to boost U.S. military’s precision strike prowess, propelling a maneuverable warhead at hypersonic velocities across vast distances. This skill is pivotal amid major power competition, especially against nations like China and Russia, who are also keenly developing and deploying hypersonic technologies. Notably, China introduced its first hypersonic weapon system, the DF-17, in 2019, highlighting the imperative for the U.S. to accelerate its efforts.
The creation of the Dark Eagle falls under the larger Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) initiative, a collaborative endeavor between the U.S. Army and Navy. This initiative endeavors to generate a hypersonic, cold-gas launched missile system, centralizing the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) as the weapon’s nucleus. The C-HGB combines the warhead, guidance mechanism, wiring, and the thermal protection shield, vital for the system’s hypersonic function.
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The program’s timeline has been thwarted by testing postponements and technical obstacles. An essential C-HGB test was aborted, extending the Army’s deployment schedule past its initial aim. Despite these hindrances, the project’s management remains dedicated to the system’s development and forthcoming deployment, emphasizing the necessity of assuring its dependability and safety for operational employment. Such carefulness mirrors the initiative’s intricacy and the technological challenges inherent in cultivating hypersonic capacities.
Furthermore, the cooperation between the Army and Navy exemplifies the unified tactic employed by U.S. defense forces in pushing forward hypersonic technology. This collaborative action is vital not only for deploying the Dark Eagle but also for establishing the basis for future hypersonic systems across military branches. The program’s phased testing strategy, aimed at verifying the system’s functionalities and resolving any technical problems, highlights the stringent procedures involved in operationalizing such advanced weaponry.
The hindrance in deploying the Dark Eagle hypersonic weapon highlights the technological and logistical challenges confronting the U.S. military in its quest to keep a competitive advantage in hypersonic warfare. These challenges are framed within a larger context of intense power rivalry, where progress in military capacities is keenly observed and countered by worldwide adversaries. Despite these obstacles, the ongoing development and eventual deployment of hypersonic weapons like the Dark Eagle are essential for assuring the U.S. maintains strategic equality or superiority in this swiftly changing warfare domain.
Johnny Franks holds an MA in U.S. Foreign Policy & National Security from American University and a BA in Diplomacy & World Affairs from Occidental College. With a specific interest in geopolitical security and military technology, Johnny has primarily focused his research and analysis on the Russia-Ukraine conflict from 2014 onwards. As part of his MA coursework, Johnny contributed to developing an Arctic defense strategy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense
