United States is close to completing a years‑long effort to arm its first Army unit with the long‑range hypersonic system Dark Eagle. The 1st Multi‑Domain Task Force of the U.S. Army is expected to receive a full complement of hypersonic missiles for the system by the end of this year.
Frank Lozano, head of the Army's missiles and space program, told Defense News that the milestone reflects how long and problem‑prone the process of fielding truly modern, battlefield‑relevant weapons can be in the U.S. military.
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Back in the autumn of 2021 four years ago the 1st Multi‑Domain Task Force, part of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, received all the battery equipment for the Dark Eagle hypersonic system except for the missiles themselves. That included four launchers, each capable of carrying two missiles.
By early 2023 the Dark Eagle system (also known as the Long‑Range Hypersonic Weapon, LRHW) was deployed to Joint Base Lewis‑McChord, and initial plans called for the battery to receive all eight missiles by the fall of that year. However, after a scheduled test launch was canceled in September, missile deliveries were delayed.
Officials later explained that the cancelled launches were not due to the missile itself but to issues with the launcher. After several attempts, the United States successfully fired a Dark Eagle hypersonic missile at the end of 2024. The missile's unit cost is roughly $41 million.
Despite the Dark Eagle having had virtually no successful firings until recently, earlier that year the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to supply a second Dark Eagle hypersonic battery. A year later, after ordering the second battery, the Pentagon even began to question whether it needed a hypersonic system with such expensive missiles.
It is now known that earlier this year the 1st Multi‑Domain Task Force received the first three missiles for the Dark Eagle system; the fourth is undergoing acceptance testing, and the final eighth missile is expected by the end of the year.
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