Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon

Common-Hypersonic Glide Body In 2018, the Navy was designated to lead the design of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body with input from the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. Design , 3 August 2024, Exercise Bamboo Eagle 24-3, Nellis AFB carrying a prototype of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body The design of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body with a kinetic energy projectile warhead is based on the previously developed Alternate Re-Entry System, which was tested in the early 2010s as part of the Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon program. The Alternate Re-Entry System was itself based on the Sandia Winged Energetic Reentry Vehicle Experiment (SWERVE) prototype developed by Sandia National Laboratories in the 1980s. Design work is by Sandia, while Dynetics constructs prototypes and test units. Testing The first test of the Intermediate Range Conventional Prompt Strike Flight Experiment-1, was on 30 October 2017. A missile capable of fitting in the launch tube of an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine flew over 2,000 nautical miles from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands at hypersonic speeds. The Common-Hypersonic Glide Body was tested in March 2020. On 28 June 2024, the Department of Defense announced a successful recent end-to-end test of the US Army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon all-up round (AUR) and the US Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike. The missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, landing more than 2000 miles away in the Marshall Islands. A second 2024 test of the land-based launcher fired an all-up round (AUR) from a transporter erector launcher (TEL) using a Battery Operations Center at Cape Canaveral on 12 December 2024, which was successful. Both stages of the missile booster as well as a thrust vector control system were tested in 2021. On 29 October 2021, the booster rocket for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon was successfully tested in a static test in Utah; the first stage thrust vector control system was included in the test. In March 2021, training with inert missile canisters began. In June 2022 in Hawaii, a launch failure of Conventional Prompt Strike occurred after ignition. The test of a completely assembled CPS weapon, which uses a two-stage booster, failed before ignition of the C-HGB. Conventional Prompt Strike was successfully tested 12 December 2024. ==Entry into service==

The United States Army intends to deploy the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon in an eight missile battery containing four M983 trucks and trailers each holding two missiles in launch canisters alongside a command vehicle. In February 2023, the 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (5-3 LRFB)—1st MDTF's long-range fires battalion—deployed the LRHW from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, Washington to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first battery of missiles was expected to be deployed by end of September 2023. On 7 September 2023, a test launch of the LRHW system was canceled due to an unspecified failure of pre-flight checks. United States Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Douglas R. Bush revealed that the launcher had a "mechanical engineering problem", and that a new plan was in place to correct and test it. An LRHW all-up round was successfully tested sometime prior to 28 June 2024. On 29 April 2026, the US Central Command requested that the Dark Eagle be sent to the Middle East for potential deployment against Iran during the 2026 Iran war, marking the first time Washington would deploy the technology, according to Bloomberg. According to a person with direct knowledge of the issue, US CENTCOM made the request after Iran moved its missile launchers out of range of the US Army's Precision Strike Missile, the current technology it has deployed. ==See also==