Now only looks at Russia, which ranks second in the second echelon of hypersonic weapon , although the "Dagger" missile is limited by the insufficient production capacity of and did not play an important role in the Russian-Ukrainian war, the "Zerry" hypersonic missile is planned to be installed by the end of 2022, and two versions have been developed, not to mention that the Russian Rocket Force also has a more advanced "pioneer" intercontinental booster gliding vehicle. Compared with this, the United States, which got up early and rushed to the late market in the field of hypersonic weapons, felt more stressful. At present, the US Navy has determined to deploy hypersonic weapons for the "Zumwalter" destroyer in 2025, while the US Army launched a big bet to strive to install hypersonic weapons before the end of next year.
The hypersonic weapon that the US Army plans to install is called "Long-range Hypersonic Weapon" (LRHW), nicknamed "Dark Eagle". It is essentially the same weapon as the "Current Rapid Strike" (CPS) that will be equipped with the "Zumwalt" class destroyer . The biggest difference between LRHW and CPS is that the former adopts a vertical hot launch method, while the CPS adopts a vertical cold launch method to make the "Zumwalt" class destroyer and the "Virginia" Block 5 nuclear submarine vertically launched.
"Long-range Hypersonic Weapon" (LRHW) bullet length is about 10.5 meters, with a diameter of 34.5 inches (0.8763m), a total weight of 7.4 tons, and its maximum range is no less than 2775 kilometers. Like the Navy's CPS, the LRHW's warheads are both double-cone warheads weighing about 1,200 pounds (544.31kg). This warhead end maneuverability is better than that of the general ballistic missile warhead, but compared with the wave-booming warhead that has been in service, this double-cone warhead is obviously one generation behind in technology. In addition, although the maximum flight speed of the LRHW can reach Mach 15, the flight speed at the end of the C-HGB warhead is only Mach 5, so the LRHW has only reached the level of just getting started with hypersonic weapons in terms of speed.
Unlike the "Zumwalter" class destroyer that uses an APM launch tube with a diameter of 87 inches (2.2m), the U.S. Army LRHW will be carried using an M870 transport/launch trailer. One launch vehicle can be loaded with two LRHW launch devices and will be towed by the M983A4 tractor. From the fall of 2021, the 5th Battalion of the 3rd Artillery Regiment of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the United States Army became the first unit to receive LRHW, which is mainly used to test the tactics, techniques and procedures required by the combat system (TTP) and conduct simulated launch tests. In the future, the latter of the US Army will be officially installed in the latter case. The LRHW artillery company will have 4 launch vehicles and 8 LRHW missiles (the specific configuration of the command and support vehicles is currently kept confidential). All combat systems of each company can be disassembled and airlifted by the C-130 transport aircraft.
In October 2017, the developer of the LRHW project, , Lockheed Martin , used the non-standard launch vehicle , and then completed another launch in March 2020. The 5th Battalion of the 3rd Artillery Regiment of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the United States Army originally planned to launch its first simulated equipment training test launch by the end of 2021, but this plan was quickly postponed to 2022, and the first "test launch" of LRHW also ended in failure. Therefore, it is difficult to implement this no longer advanced hypersonic weapon that has never been tested successfully in 2023 as scheduled, which is undoubtedly a big bet. Moreover, after LRHW is in service, it will take a long test and wait to replace it with a more advanced wave-boom warhead.
is also why. On October 26 this year, the United States also launched a sounding rocket , testing up to 12 components under development or about to be equipped with hypersonic weapons, including the LRHW and CPS projects, and said that all tests were successful. This can once again prove that the reliability of various models of hypersonic weapons in the United States is far from reaching the actual combat standards. In desperation, the United States has to find ways to speed up testing and improvement. There is no doubt that the United States is indeed lagging too much behind in the field of hypersonic weapons.
