US Army’s Dark Eagle hypersonic weapon fielding delayed to year’s end
By Jen Judson
Sep 18, 03:04 PM
WASHINGTON —The U.S. Army will miss its goal to field the Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon during the government’s fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, but is still aiming to deliver the capability by the end of the calendar year, according to the service’s acquisition chief.
The delay is due to the cancellation of a critical test of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush told Defense News in a Sept. 18 interview. The scrapped test planned for this month was going to be “pretty close to an operational test” rather than a developmental test, he said.
“We still have a path with a follow up test to get to a fielded capability by the end of calendar 2023,” Bush said. “It is just what it is, I mean, fact of life, we’re not going to field something until we have some confidence that if soldiers are asked to go use it in combat that it’s going to work and be safe for them to use.”
“We’re finding problems,” Bush said. “It’s actually good we’re finding these.”
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2023/09/18/us-armys-dark-eagle-hypersonic-weapon-fielding-delayed-to-years-end/
