The U.S. Army may soon mark an important and long-awaited event for itself the adoption of the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile system. Army chief of missile programs Lieutenant General Frank Lozano stated the U.S. is very close to having the first battery fully equipped with all necessary assets, with only a few weeks remaining.
Bloomberg reports this. It's noted that according to Lozano, the U.S. Army is working with Lockheed Martin, the project's main contractor, to increase production of missiles for it. Production is very complex, with some parts actually assembled by hand.
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Moreover, the publication emphasizes that the data announced by Lozano is quite optimistic. Earlier, the U.S. Department of War’s testing office stated that during Dark Eagle hypersonic system trials, insufficient data had been obtained to determine the system’s operational effectiveness. At least another year is needed for all necessary processes.
At the same time, the U.S. Army has no requirement to follow this structure’s directives and can independently decide on adoption.
The Dark Eagle hypersonic system was actually created not without problems. For example, in 2024, after a whole two years of failed attempts, the U.S. Army finally launched a Dark Eagle hypersonic missile.
However, even after the successful launch, the Pentagon ultimately expressed doubts about whether they need this system at all. The question remained about what strike power Dark Eagle could give the U.S. Army.
It's worth noting that firing from such a system is very expensive one missile costs over $40 million. As recently became known, the weight of explosive in its warhead is only less than 14 kg.
Missile production rates are also very, very small, one per month or 12 per year, with plans to double this to two per month or 24 per year respectively.
Defense Express previously reported that a private company in Europe wants to hastily create a 1-ton hypersonic missile.
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