By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

Congress has received a new report on the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), better known as Dark Eagle. 

   The report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) comes at a time when the US is playing catch-up with China and Russia when it comes to hypersonic weapons. Still, the US is making up ground, test-firing Dark Eagle from Cape Canaveral. 

   That test – and one in May by the Navy, also from Cape Canaveral  – is part of the All Up Round (AUR) that the two services are developing jointly. DArk Eagle is said to travel at speeds over 3,900 miles per hour (faster than Mach 5) and has a range of 1,725 miles. 

    In December’s test, the Army missile was fired from a trailer-based launcher. According to the CRS report, the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington will operate the first batter of eight Dark Eagles. The battalion is part of the Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, which is part of the Indo-Pacific-oriented I Corps. 

   As for the Navy, it plans to deploy the missile on Zumwalt-class destroyers and Block V Virginia-class submarines.  Last year, Ingalls Shipbuilding removed the USS Zumwalt’s twin cannon turrets to make room for the hypersonic missiles. Tubes were installed to allow the Zumwalt to carry as many as a dozen of the missiles. Another Zumwalt-class destroyer, the USS Michael Monsoor, is also being converted. 

   The missile component of the system is being developed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. There’s also a hypersonic glide body that’s being built by Dynetics. The glide body is carried in the missile’s nose cone, and when the missile reaches a certain altitude and speed, the glide body is released. It then glides at hypersonic speeds toward the target.   

   Originally, the Army had hoped to deploy Dark Eagle during 2023. Now, the CRS report says, the Army believes it will be able to field the missile by the end of this fiscal year (which ends September 30.) 

   The CRS also notes that Congress has expressed its concern about the cost of the missiles as well as operational testing and stockpile requirements. Earlier this month, the Government Accounting Office estimated that the cost of fielding the first Dark Eagle battery has increased by $150 million in the past year. “According to the Army,” the GAO said, “the cost growth was attributed to increases in the cost of the missiles and testing issues that resulted in investigations and retests.”