Summary and Key Points: After years of struggling to adapt to new global threats, the U.S. Army has achieved a significant breakthrough with the successful test of its Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), also known as the Dark Eagle, on June 28, 2024.

-With a range of 1,725 miles and the ability to travel over 3,800 mph, this ground-launched, truck-based system can strike targets while evading missile defenses.

-The Dark Eagle represents a crucial advancement in countering China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategies and restoring U.S. military dominance. Congress is urged to prioritize funding for this program to enhance U.S. strategic capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.

US Army’s Dark Eagle Hypersonic Weapon Could Change Sino-American War Dynamics

The U.S. Army has had a rough go over the last couple of decades. It struggled to adapt to the needs of the Global War on Terror. Indeed, the amphibious U.S. Marine Corps did a far better job of adapting to the demands of that war than did America’s primary land power. 

And as the GWOT wrapped up, the Army again failed to adapt to the new dynamic threat environment of great power competition. 

The Army Hasn’t Been Doing Well 

The Army was so slow on the uptake that during the Obama administration, the Navy, Air Force, and Marines essentially cut the Army out of their main plans for countering a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (plans known as Air-Sea Battle”). That, and the subsequent cuts to the Army as part of the (failed) sequestration concocted between the Obama White House and the Republican-controlled Congress in 2011, did lasting damage to the Army’s readiness.

This was something that late Army Gen. Ray Odierno said to my colleagues and I during his final briefing on the Hill before his retirement. 

America’s Army languished since then as it tried to find its place in the new paradigm. There were attempts to counter the Air Force-Navy-Marine “Air-Sea Battle” with what Gen. Odierno called the Office of Strategic Land Power. That concept struggled to gain traction, as the other major branches of the military had beaten the Army to the punch with Air-Sea Battle.

The Army Might Have Finally Found Its Way

Finally, after years of flailing about, the Army might have homed in on the right formulation for making itself viable in the frightening event of war with China. The focus is in the domain of hypersonic weapons. China leads the United States in the development of a host of strategic denial capabilities, such as anti-ship ballistic missiles, anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems, hypersonic glide vehicles, and counterspace weapons. 

With these strategic denial systems in place, Chinese forces could likely keep the U.S. military away from the region as Chinese forces overwhelm a local target such as Taiwan. 

Keeping the Americans just over the horizon gives the Chinese military a greater chance of victory over China’s smaller and likely weaker local rivals (who are backed by the US military). 

It’s too late to prevent China from maximizing the gains from these strategic denial capabilities. However, the Americans can develop systems designed to punch through whatever denial systems Beijing’s forces establish, land killing blows against Chinese military targets, and then work to restore U.S. military dominance in any engagement. 

The Dark Eagle

The key to this strategy will be mastery of long-range warfare, and that’s where the Army comes in. Specifically, the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), also known as Dark Eagle. Possessing a reported range of 1,725 miles, as described by the Congressional Research Service, this beast “consists of a ground-launched missile equipped with a hypersonic glide body and associated transport, support, and fire control equipment.” 

The Army goes on to detail how this “land-based, truck-launched system is armed with hypersonic missiles that can travel well over 3,800 miles per hour. They can reach the top of the Earth’s atmosphere and remain just beyond the range of air and missile defense systems until they are ready to strike, and by then it’s too late to react.”

Indeed, the Dark Eagle is such an important step forward both for the Army and the U.S. military as a whole, that the Navy has begun cooperating with Big Green in the development of this system, hoping for greater interoperability between the land branch and the maritime service. American defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are developing the LRHW. 

After two years of struggle, the Army finally made the Dark Eagle work in a test flight conducted from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, on June 28, 2024. 

Building On Success for Dark Eagle

Obviously, more tests will be needed. But the June 28 tests in Hawaii are a quantum leap forward for the Army in its mission to remain a potent element of America’s joint fighting force. Congress must direct as much funding and resources into the Dark Eagle program as possible, even if it means diverting funds away from other preferred Army and Navy programs.

If a Sino-American war erupts, it won’t be aircraft carriers and F-16s that determine the outcome. It will be whoever possesses a greater share of long-range, hypersonic weapons that can punch through the fortified, modern defenses that China has erected all about their region. The conflict will be decided by the side that can survive in such a degraded environment longer than the other. 

The Army’s Dark Eagle is the equivalent of a silver bullet for punching holes through China’s A2/AD bubbles. It might allow for US. .surface warships and Marine amphibious ships to operate more safely nearer to contested territory in the Indo-Pacific.

Author Experience and Expertise: Brandon J. Weichert

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock. 

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