HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Navy is headed for a major test of a hypersonic weapon that will help pave the way for a joint development program with the U.S. military, according to the director of the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.
“The Navy is moving forward with its test, which is not a launch from ground support equipment, but just a stool launch, so we can see the missile again,” Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch told Defense News. Interview March 27 here at the Association of US Army World Forces Symposium.
The Navy’s test of the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body will lead to an Army test of the missile this summer from a ground-based launcher, he said. “Right now, if things go as planned, we’ll be out in the lineup this summer.”
The hypersonic weapons are capable of flying faster than Mach 5 – or more than 3,836 miles per hour – and can maneuver between different altitudes, making them difficult to detect. The C-HGB consists of the warhead, the guidance system, the wiring and the heat shield.
The US is in a race to develop the capability as well as develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles. China and Russia are actively developing and testing hypersonic weapons.
Spring testing focuses solely on missile performance and is conducted using a test bed that eliminates ground support equipment, canister and launcher.
“It’s more of a command to the rocket to ignite and watch the rocket go through stage one, stage two, the payload adapter, the supersonic glide body separates and does its thing,” Rasch said.
The test is to ensure the agencies understand the missile is performing as intended, he said.
The Army, meanwhile, is making sure the ground support equipment for the long-range hypersonic weapon, or LRHW, is working properly and then will combine the missile and launcher in the next test, Rasch explained.
If the Navy’s test is successful, “that’s a decision point for the Army to allow the vendor to start putting these tactical rounds together. We’ve lined them up, ready to go, in different stages of completeness. I keep them because I want to see the end-to-end performance,” Rasch said.
The Army has spent several years working with Leidos’ Dynetics to build the industrial base for the supersonic weapon slide body to be used by both the ground service and the Navy, because the domestic private sector had never built a supersonic weapon. .
The service also produced separate launchers, trucks, trailers, and the combat operations center necessary to assemble the first gun battery. Lockheed Martin is the weapon system integrator for the Army’s hypersonic capability that will be launched from a mobile truck.
If the Army’s test is successful, Rasch said, the rounds will be ready to go to the first unit equipped with the capability.
The service completed delivery of the first hypersonic weapon capability, minus the spherical weapons, to I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state two days ago the end of the 21st year.
The original plan was to train the equipment and receive these rounds in the fall of 2023, but based on a series of failed or aborted tests, that schedule has slipped further.
The Army and Navy last year had to cancel flight tests in March, October and November because of “range challenges,” Rasch said.
“Every time we do these tests, even if they’re non-tests, obviously, we’re learning,” Rasch said. “But in this case, the round had to come back and have some work done on it. These challenges weren’t about the round, just the process of firing them, it takes some work.”
The pause in testing while the rounds were evaluated, “gave us some time to stop and think about where we hadn’t done enough developmental testing. “Obviously a program that moves as fast as RCCTO in ultrasonics, there’s a risk that we move too fast,” Rasch said. “You’re making an acquisition and running with scissors at the same time.”
The Army reviewed previous tests at the component level and found where the service may have missed things, he added.
“And we’ve done a number of tours over the last several months to try to make sure we understand exactly what’s going on, what the phenomena are that are happening, and how we repeat this over and over again so we know this is what’s wrong.” Russ said.
Even this week, Rasch said, the Army is conducting high-fidelity tests with the ground support equipment, simulating every aspect of the firing to make sure “all the phenomena that allow us to get back to the range” are captured.
While the program is delayed, the speed at which the Navy and Army are moving is extremely fast for a program of this nature, Rasch noted.
The service went from a blank piece of paper in March 2019 to delivering hardware in just over two years, including an operations center, four carrier-installation launchers and modified trucks and trailers that make up LRHW’s ground equipment.
“This is a difficult problem. If you look at the history of missile programs, most of them in this space are 10 to 12 years long,” he said. “It’s not just a new missile, it’s a new missile technology, and by the way, we had to build new ground support equipment, we had to build new command and control capabilities into it. So it was a monumental project.”
Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist who covers land warfare for Defense News. He has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.
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