US claims success in hypersonic weapon test

Days earlier, the Pentagon reported another major breakthrough with interception of an intermediate-range ballistic missile

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has reported a successful test of the hypersonic weapon system dubbed the Dark Eagle, which is being developed jointly by the Army and the Navy.

The two military services intend to use the same hypersonic glider warhead, the C-HGB, whose booster rocket could be launched from either land or a vessel, including a Zumwalt-class destroyer and a Virginia-class submarine.

The recent test launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and which the Pentagon announced on Thursday, involved the Army’s version, officially named the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).

The previous test launch was conducted in June from the Hawaiian island of Kauai, according to the DoD. The new trial differed in using for the first time a Battery Operations Center and a Transporter Erector Launcher, the elements of the ground-mobile platform for the Army’s booster missile.

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The weapon has a reported range of 1,725 miles (2,775km), with the warhead travelling at speeds of over 3,800 miles per hour (6,115km/h), which corresponds to Mach 5 and defines the weapon as a hypersonic projectile.

The US used to have a commitment not to develop the LRHW with that range under the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned both conventional and nuclear-capable surface-to-surface delivery systems in a certain range bracket. Washington withdrew from the treaty in 2018.

The joint program faced delays, with the Army telling Bloomberg in September 2023 that it was missing its goal to field the system by the end of FY2023.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon heralded a major defense achievement, reporting that the US Missile Defense Agency has for the first time conducted a successful interception of an air-launched medium-range ballistic missile in Guam.