U.S. troops assemble the launch systems of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon System, known as Dark Eagle, during Exercise Talisman Sabre in the Northwest Territory of Australia in July 2025. (Perla Alfaro/U.S. Army)
TACOMA, Wash. — The top general for the Army’s hypersonic weapons program says the Dark Eagle battery based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the Pacific Northwest will receive its first operational missiles soon.
“We are so close to that first battery being fully equipped with all of its capabilities that I don’t want to spoil the surprise when we actually get there, but we’re within a few weeks,” Lt. Gen. Frank Lozano said in a Bloomberg News report published Wednesday.
Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force, based at JBLM, has been designated to operate Dark Eagle, the popular nickname for the officially named Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) system.
Hypersonic weapons can travel at five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) and combine high speed with maneuverability, making them difficult for anti-missile systems to target.
Dark Eagle is a trailer-launched boost-glide vehicle system. The first stage uses a common booster developed in cooperation with the Navy, which plans to field a sea-launched hypersonic weapon.
The second stage of Dark Eagle is a warhead that can travel in excess of 3,800 mph, with aerodynamics that allow Army controllers to shape its trajectory and move it erratically in ways to avoid interception by anti-missile batteries. Its maximum range is 2,175 miles.
Russia has developed hypersonic weapons such as the Avangard, and China has both the DF-17 and longer-range DF-27 hypersonic glide missiles.
The Pentagon has said Dark Eagle would carry only conventional, non-nuclear warheads. The main damage effect would be the kinetic energy of hitting a target at an extremely high speed.
The Russian and Chinese missiles are rated by U.S. intelligence sources as being capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads.
The Army designation of an operational hypersonic missile battery would be a major step for the $12 billion Dark Eagle program, which has faced development and testing delays. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor.
In July 2025 the 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force deployed the Dark Eagle system to the Northern Territory of Australia during the Talisman Sabre exercise. The missile was not fired during international military exercises.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said Aug. 2 that sending the Dark Eagle to Australia was a significant achievement, proving it could be moved and set up in potential combat areas.
“It validates the Army’s ability to deploy, position, and exercise command and control in a forward environment.”
The 3d Multi-Domain Task Force deploys two launchers of the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon System — nicknamed Dark Eagle — to Northern Territory, Australia, July 9, 2025, to participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre 25. (Perla Alfaro/U.S. Army)
