The Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and the Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the highly anticipated test Thursday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, according to the Defense Department. The event marks the first live-fire test for the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) — also known as Dark Eagle — with a battery operations center and transporter erector launcher.

“This test builds on several flight tests in which the Common Hypersonic Glide Body achieved hypersonic speed at target distances and demonstrates that we can put this capability in the hands of the warfighter,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement.

The event also marked the second successful end-to-end flight test of the AUR in 2024, according to the Pentagon.

The Common Hypersonic Glide Body is a collaboration effort between the Army and the Navy to develop and field a hypersonic missile for each service. The Army intends to integrate the system into ground launchers for Dark Eagle, while the sea service plans to integrate it into a ship-launched hypersonic capability called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS). 

As adversaries like China and Russia tout their own advancements in hypersonic missiles, the U.S. military has raced to field systems of their own and will soon move into the next phase of development — dubbed “hypersonics 2.0 and 3.0.” The high-speed weapons are able to maneuver through the atmosphere at speeds of Mach 5 or greater, making it difficult for enemy air defenses to detect and defeat them.

The successful AUR test for the Common Hypersonic Glide Vehicle comes after a series of prior aborted and failed events that have delayed fielding for both hypersonic weapons. The services previously called off tests due to problems with the system’s launcher, after which the Army and Navy revised their testing plans and schedule. 

Following a successful end-to-end flight test in June, Army acquisition chief Doug Bush told reporters on multiple occasions that the services would conduct one more key AUR test before the end of 2024 in order to decide whether to field the system next year.

The Army has already delivered the first LRHW capability — without the all-up rounds — to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Meanwhile, the Navy is planning to field CPS aboard Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyers and Virginia-class attack submarines in the next few years.

Data collected from the recent test will support plans to deliver the common hypersonic AUR for both ground- and sea-based fielding, according to a Pentagon news release. The Defense Department declined to provide any additional details regarding fielding timelines and expectations for both programs.

“This test marks an important milestone in the development of one of our most advanced weapons systems,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said in a statement. “As we approach the first delivery of this capability to our Army partners, we will continue to press forward to integrate Conventional Prompt Strike into our Navy surface and subsurface ships to help ensure we remain the world’s preeminent fighting force.”

Leidos is the prime contractor for the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, while Lockheed Martin serves as the prime contractor for both the Army’s LRHW and the Navy’s CPS.

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Multiple scheduled flight tests of the Dark Eagle have been called off, most recently one that was slated for Oct. 26. Now, officials are charting a new course.

A “big meeting” was held this past week, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told DefenseScoop on Saturday. It included his Navy counterpart Frederick “Jay” Stefany, their military deputies, and prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

The Army and Navy have been partnering on the development of hypersonics-related tech.

“It’s really a joint program. So it was myself, Mr. Stefany, the two three-stars and Lockheed working through, you know, finding out exactly what happened and then coming up at the same time with the new test schedule,” Bush said in an interview at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

He continued: “That’s gonna be several things in parallel. Fundamentally, there’s testing the launcher, which, frankly, is where the problems have been. Then there’s the missile itself, you know, the glide body and all that. So I think what we’re hoping to do is come up with a way to … not have to do everything in step function. We can simultaneously perhaps pursue some more aggressive missile tests to gain confidence with the missile while doing some additional testing stuff we would normally do to find exactly what happened with the launcher itself. And then, when we have confidence in the launcher and the missile, then we’ll reschedule a kind of operational test where it’s, you know, all the real equipment. That was what we were trying to do the last few tests” that didn’t go forward successfully.

Hypersonic weapons — which are designed to fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable and overwhelm enemy air defenses — are a top acquisition priority for the U.S. military. The multibillion-dollar Dark Eagle program is a key element of the Army’s long-range fires modernization portfolio.

U.S. competitors China and Russia are also pursuing hypersonics and the Pentagon is trying to keep pace.

Bush noted that the Dark Eagle program had a lot of concurrency built into it because the Army was trying to move fast.

“Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn’t … but I’m confident that when the teams are fully synced and integrated, we’re going to find what’s wrong. We know how to do this. But we, as acquisition professionals, we need to do … perhaps subcomponent testing, for example, to just build confidence before you go spend a whole bunch of money and do another operational test. So [it will be] more of a normal test profile. So, it’ll delay us a bit. But we’re hopeful, you know, definitely in 2024 … we can get back to like a full-up operational test so we can thumbs-up on fielding,” he said. “Hopefully [it will be fielded] well before the end of calendar ’24 — hopefully summertime. But we’re still working on exactly what that schedule looks like.”

Officials had originally aimed to field the system before the end of fiscal 2023.

Meanwhile, the Army is working on a separate long-range fires modernization effort known as the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) program. For the second increment of PrSM, the service aims to equip the system with a multi-mode seeker that would enable the weapon to attack ships at sea. DefenseScoop asked Bush if down the road the Army could integrate that type of seeker technology into the Dark Eagle to give it an anti-ship capability.

“It certainly hasn’t been decided yet. I think we do expect working with the Navy to keep spending R&D money to improve Dark Eagle over time, just with future blocks … Especially the glide body. Because you know the enemy is gonna react when we have this capability, so we’re gonna have to continuously improve it,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve got an order to go do that yet. But if the weapon works and then we get confident with it, and the military side decides that an anti-ship version of it is worth pursuing, it’s something that we could do … potentially.”

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A critical flight test for the system was slated for Oct. 26 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, but it didn’t go forward as planned.

“I can’t go into details, but it was before launch when a problem was detected. So that’s why the test didn’t happen,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told DefenseScoop during a roundtable with reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

Bush declined to specify what the problem was, stating that it’s classified and program leaders are still doing root-cause analysis.

“After you have a test failure, you know, you take the thing back, take it apart, and the members of the team work through with the engineers on what exactly the failure was. And we’re doing that of course with the Navy. They are our partners in this program … I think we’re close to understanding what exactly the problem was, which will inform our path to getting back to testing,” he said.

The incident was the latest in a series of hiccups associated with testing the system, which was previously known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).

“It definitely will make it very difficult to achieve our … end-of-the-year goal [for fielding]. Very unlikely we’ll achieve that goal. But at the same time, the capability is still absolutely needed. The Army is still fully committed to it. I think we’ll figure it out,” Bush said.

Hypersonic weapons — which are designed to fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable and overwhelm enemy air defenses — are a top modernization priority for the Pentagon.

The Army had aimed to field the Dark Eagle before the end of fiscal 2023, which came on Sept. 30. However, a flight test scheduled for September was postponed due to a weapons-related issue, and officials then said they hoped to field the system by the end of the calendar year. Now, it looks like that won’t happen.

“We’ll get the LRHW but it’s going to take more time, unfortunately,” Bush said during the meeting with reporters Tuesday.

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“The flight test did not occur,” Army spokesperson Ellen Lovett said in response to questions from DefenseScoop on Wednesday.

This marks the latest in a series of hiccups associated with the Army’s in-development Dark Eagle missile, which was previously known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW). In March, a slated test was called off due to an issue with the battery activation. Another test planned around September was also held up due to a separate weapons issue.

Army officials had said they wanted to conduct another flight test before moving forward with fielding the system.

The service had originally aimed to field the weapon before the end of fiscal 2023, which came on Sept. 30. After the previously scheduled test was aborted, officials said they hoped to field the system by the end of the calendar year.

Lovett declined to provide more information about why the test scheduled for last week did not happen — and whether it was cancelled or a result of a major technical failure.  

“The Department was able to successfully collect data on the performance of the ground hardware and software that will inform the continued progress towards fielding offensive hypersonic weapons,” she said.

In response to further inquiries, the spokesperson also did not provide an updated timeline for when the Army is now anticipating it will field the weapon or comment on any potentially associated delays.

“Delivering hypersonic weapons remains a top priority for the DOD,” Lovett told DefenseScoop.

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The Army was hoping to field the initial battery of the Dark Eagle missiles, previously known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), before the end of fiscal 2023 on Sept. 30. However, the scrubbing of a test scheduled for earlier this month has led to slippage in the timeline.

A previous test in March also had to be called off due to an issue with the battery activation, officials said at the time. However, the recent postponement was due to an issue with the weapon, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told reporters during a meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

“It was weapon-related … it was the system itself. There was a flaw that triggered a ‘don’t shoot’ [message], basically. It’s like if you can imagine a countdown for rocket launch, something flagged in the system and said ‘stop here.’ And that was like two seconds away. So pretty close,” he said.

Bush was asked if the problem was a major glitch that wasn’t anticipated.

“It was not. I wouldn’t say we anticipated it or we fixed it. But I think it’s an example though, when you take a system, for example, you know, take the missile and you put it into what’s going to be an operational launcher — this is where you learn that integration. It might sound simple, but it’s not,” he said.

The event wasn’t expected to be a “full-up” operational test, but something close to it, he suggested.

“A lot of soldiers were involved. We used the real hardware, we used the real software. So unfortunately we had that glitch. But we believe we have a test campaign scheduled for the rest of the year that could still — if it goes well — enable [an] end-of-the-year thumbs up on fielding … to the first battery,” Bush said. “We’ll see. Still gotta have a good test.”

Bush did not disclose when the test is now slated to take place.

Hypersonic weapons are a top modernization priority for the Pentagon as it seeks new quick-strike capabilities. These types of missiles are designed to fly faster than Mach 5, be highly maneuverable and pose a major challenge for adversaries’ air defense systems.

The Army and Navy have been working together on a common hypersonic glide body that could be used for the Army’s ground-launched Dark Eagle and the Navy’s sea-launched Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) system. The Air Force is also pursuing air-launched hypersonics.

Having the schedule slip for the Dark Eagle isn’t a huge surprise, Bush said.

Other Army officials have previously said the service was taking on a lot of risk to meet the original goal for fielding.

“This is an equivalent of a Major Defense Acquisition Program. It is extremely complicated. It’s an entirely new missile, new launcher, new fire control,” Bush said. “So, if we stay on our revised testing plan … our goal is now the end of the calendar year to get a fielded system with a test to validate it. I think three months [slippage] in the grand scheme of things is not that big a deal. But that’s for others to judge, especially for a system this complicated.”

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