The Army plan to field a long-range hypersonic missile by month’s end hit another speed bump this week when it scrubbed a flight test of the new weapon dubbed Dark Eagle, a Pentagon official confirmed.
“The department planned to conduct a flight test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., to inform our hypersonic technology development,” a Department of Defense spokesman wrote in a short statement to Breaking Defense today. “As a result of pre-flight checks, the test did not occur.”
However, he noted that the department was able to “successfully” collect data about ground hardware and software performance. “Delivering hypersonic weapons remains a top priority for the department,” the spokesman added.
Florida Today first reported on Wednesday’s failed test.
Pentagon leaders are racing to catch up to China’s hypersonic weapon development and tasked the Army, Navy and Air Force with fielding their own versions of the fast-moving missile. For the Army and Navy, that has meant teaming up to produce a common missile, with the Navy planning to launch it off destroyers and submarines. The Army, meanwhile, is using a land-based truck system to fire rounds capable of traveling “well over” 3,800 miles per hour — five times the speed of sound, the common definition of “hypersonic” — towards targets within a 1,725-mile range, according to a March Congressional Research Services report.