With the failure of the U.S. Air Force's AGM-183A "Air-Launched Rapid**" ARRW program in March this year, the Army's "Long-Range Hypersonic **" (LRHW), also known as the "Dark Eagle" missile, became the only hypersonic missile in the "deployed" state before the U.S. Army's "Hypersonic Cruise Missile" (HACM) entered service. However, the situation of the lone seedling of "Dark Eagle" is not so good that it is not going to be better, the progress is delayed, the test launch has failed one after another, and the future is still full of uncertainty.
Dark Eagle "towing vehicle and launcher for hypersonic missiles)
According to a report by the Global Times, citing the United States' "Momentum"**,US Assistant Secretary of the Army Doug Bush, who is responsible for procurement, logistics and technology, said at the Reagan Defense Forum that the three test launches of the "Dark Hawk" missile, which were originally scheduled for March, September and October this year, were canceled due to technical reasons, which caused its scheduled service to be postponed to 2024。However, the "Dark Eagle" is already the fastest progress among several types of hypersonic missiles in the United States, and even if the actual combat deployment is delayed again and again, there is still hope to win the "crown" of the first hypersonic missile installed by the US military.
The LRHW IR CPS for land and sea greatly simplifies development and reduces risk).
The LRHW project was born against the backdrop of the expiration of the INF Treaty in 2019, and the US Army began to vigorously develop long-range strike capabilities without the limitations of the INF Treaty, after the 300-kilometer-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) was the longest-range ballistic missile in service with the US Army. In 2021, the United States announced the LRHW project plan, which will realize the two flowering of the "long-range hypersonic ** medium and long-range conventional rapid strike" (LRHW IR CPS) project in the form of joint development by the US Army and Navy. The technical configuration is rocket boost-glide, in which the army is responsible for the development of the "universal hypersonic glide body" (C-HGB), and the navy is responsible for the development of booster rockets, the biggest difference is that the army's LRHW uses a thermal launch method, and the navy's IR CPS uses a cold launch method.
The U.S. released a concept map of the C-HGB for land and sea use).
Judging from the current information, the C-HGB uses a double-cone warhead configuration similar to the Chinese Dongfeng-15B and the Russian "Dagger", which is a relatively low-end technical configuration in hypersonic missiles, and can glide in the atmosphere at a speed of more than Mach 5, and the US Army claims that the maximum speed is Mach 17. LRHW has a range of about 2,775 kilometers, and the United States has claimed that it "can hit Chinese mainland from ** in a few minutes.", so that the United States does not need the consent of any foreign country to directly intervene in the situation in the Taiwan Strait;If deployed to Japan at the front, it can cover most of central and eastern China, and the LRHW Phase II program extends the range to 2,500 miles, or 4,500 kilometers, and if deployed in Japan, it can cover almost all of China and parts of the Russian Far East. If the "Dark Eagle" is successfully developed, it will definitely be a milestone leap in the development of hypersonic missiles in the United States and the long-range strike capability of the US Army.
Universal hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) model).
ButIt seems that the United States really does not agree with hypersonic missilesThe development process of LRHW is still fraught with difficulties. Previously stationed in Lewis, Washington, USA in early October 2021. The 5th Battalion of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the 1st Army of the Army at Joint Base McCord received the first set of LRHW prototype hardware equipment, including 1 operation center, 4 sets of launchers and tractors, but there was no live ammunition and was in an embarrassing state of "deployed, but not fully deployed".
The first "deployed" launchers of the "Dark Eagle" hypersonic missile had only counterweights for training).
In June 2022, LRHW conducted the first full-flare test launch codenamed JFC-1, which can only be described as a partial success, and the booster rocket was in a stable state throughout the flight and successfully passed the test, but the C-HGB failed due to wiring problems that led to re-entry at the wrong angle. Despite the serious problems revealed by the first test launch, the U.S. Army is still on track to deploy the first LRHW in September 2023However, the successive test launches caused the US Army to once again delay the actual combat deployment of the LRHW, and the first batch of "Dark Eagle" missiles delivered had to continue to conduct "advance training" in the case of guns and ammunition.