In a race against time and Russia and China’s hypersonic missiles, the U.S Army just introduced “Dark Eagle”, its very own land-based hypersonic weapon system which is capable of striking deep into Chinese land.
In a Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Hunstville, Alabama, Robert Strider, the deputy director of the Army Hypersonic Project Office expressed his concern regarding Russian and Chinese progress with hypersonic missiles and how the USA is third in this race and needs to catch up “urgently”. Not long after his concern, the US Army introduced “Dark Eagle”, a new emerging missile known as Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) with a 1700 mile range and speeds up to Mach 5, which is five times faster than the speed of sound.
The Dark Eagle is developed in a joint venture with the US Navy and features a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) with a large rocket booster which accelerates the missile to ultra-fast speeds into space. When the booster runs out of fuel, the C-HGB glides down back to Earth and strikes its targeted spot with a high-explosive charge. Due to its high speed, it can even engage with moving targets and deliver massive damage. This is a big cause of concern for enemy countries as it makes it much more difficult to locate launch locations and destroy them well in time.
With this new hypersonic weapon, it makes it easier for the US Army to launch attacks and engage targets all the way into China from launch positions in Vietnam, Japan or the Philippines, which might be an alarming situation for the Chinese. Seems like we’re getting closer to World War III with every passing day…
The U.S Army hopes to launch the weapon as soon as 2023. Meanwhile, the Navy is also set to deploy its own version of the Dark Eagle for undersea operations.
