American military still cannot for first time fully deploy its newest hypersonic weapons system Dark Eagle, also known as Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), which is already over two years behind schedule and has new delay problems, as stated in U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Report discusses range of difficulties United States overall faces in hypersonic weapons program development, spending over $12 billion in last 8 years but still lagging behind, for example, China, Bloomberg reports.
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Dark Eagle situation is particularly interesting, as back in fall 2021, almost 5 years ago, U.S. Army (1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 17th Field Artillery Brigade) received effectively all battery equipment for this system except missiles.
After two years of unsuccessful launches, in 2024 first successful test launch was finally achieved, and last fall reports emerged of plans to deliver complete hypersonic missile set by end of 2025. While in March this year it was reported Dark Eagle with missiles would officially enter service in just several weeks.
However, apparently this has not yet happened. As GAO notes, some problems identified during previous flight testing created production bottleneck for Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles.
According to official reports, contractor (unknown whether Lockheed Martin or Leidos) still has enterprise problems and even worked with independent consultant to identify issues.
Recall Dark Eagle hypersonic missile is quite expensive weapons sample costing as much as $41 million per unit, with production rates to be quite modest only 12 missiles annually.
As of today, production problems remain relevant, and therefore unknown when American military can fully commission Dark Eagle hypersonic system.
Previously Defense Express reported naval drones with hypersonic missiles in Black Sea sounds fantastic, and U.S. is making such combo.
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