- The U.S. Army confirmed it missed its deadline to field the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile, pushing deployment to early 2026 despite trained units being ready.
- The delay leaves the United States without a deployed hypersonic weapon as China and Russia already field and use such systems.
The United States Army has missed its deadline to field the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile, acknowledging that the first U.S. ground-based hypersonic weapon will not be deployed until early 2026, despite the unit assigned to operate the system already being trained and ready.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the Army confirmed this week that it failed to meet its end-of-2025 deployment target for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), a program that has been under development since 2018 and has received more than $12 billion in funding. The admission follows earlier delays in 2023 and 2024, making this the third missed fielding deadline for the program.
“Fielding activities include the required integration, safety, and readiness steps to ensure soldiers receive a system that is reliable, sustainable, and effective in operational environments and are on track for completion in early 2026,” they said in a statement. “As the Army moves toward completion of fielding, it remains focused on rigorous testing, training, and system maturity to support successful operational employment.”
The Dark Eagle missile is part of a $10.4 billion hypersonic weapons program and is intended to provide the U.S. Army with a long-range conventional strike capability using a boost-glide system that travels at hypersonic speed. While the launcher units and support vehicles are already in place, the missile itself is not yet ready for operational use.
The Army previously missed a deadline of September 30, 2023, and failed to meet another target in September 2025, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the latest delay. The repeated slippages highlight the technical difficulty of fielding hypersonic weapons that must operate at extreme speeds and temperatures while maintaining accuracy, reliability, and safety.
The service announced on December 17 that it had activated the first battery assigned to operate the Dark Eagle missile, describing the move as “a significant advancement of its military capabilities.” The Army did not disclose at the time that the missiles were not yet ready for fielding, according to the Bloomberg report.
The first Dark Eagle battery is estimated to cost about $2.7 billion, including missiles, based on data from the Government Accountability Office. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor responsible for developing the missile, while the Army is managing integration, testing, and fielding activities.
The delay comes as the Pentagon continues to prioritize hypersonic weapons development amid growing competition with China and Russia. Both countries have already deployed hypersonic systems, and Russia has used such weapons in combat during the war in Ukraine. Hypersonic missiles are capable of flying at speeds exceeding 3,800 miles per hour, or about 6,120 kilometers per hour, and at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, making them difficult to intercept with existing air defense systems.
The absence of a deployed U.S. hypersonic weapon has been described by Bloomberg as a concerning gap in U.S. capabilities at a time when adversaries are already fielding similar systems. The delay is also an early challenge for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has emphasized the need to speed up weapons deployment and overhaul what he has described as a slow and risk-averse acquisition process.
Hegseth visited Huntsville, Alabama, on December 12, where he saw the Dark Eagle launcher during a tour of Army facilities, according to Bloomberg. The visit came just days before the Army announced activation of the missile battery.
Beyond the schedule delays, questions remain about the system’s operational readiness. In October, the Pentagon’s test office told Bloomberg that it had “not conducted an end-to-end operational assessment” of the Dark Eagle system and did not yet have data to evaluate its “operational effectiveness, lethality, suitability, and survivability.”
The Dark Eagle program is the Army’s most advanced hypersonic effort and is intended to be the first operational U.S. hypersonic weapon fielded by any service. The Navy and Air Force are pursuing related programs, some of which share components, making the Army’s progress closely watched across the U.S. Department of War.