The US Army has successfully fielded its first long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) system
to practice a full range of expeditionary hypersonic launch capabilities.
A weapon is touted to be hypersonic if it exceed speeds of Mach 5 which is 5 times the
speed of sound.
This is about 1,715 meters per second or 3,836 mph or 6,174 km/h.
The weapon system was deployed by the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force (1st MDTF) long-range
fires battalion, 5th Battalion and 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (5-3 LRFB).
As part of the exercise Thunderbolt Strike, it was fielded more than 3,100 miles or about
4990 km away from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington to Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Idea was that the soldiers would be able to practice with LRHW system through a series
of drills during the exercise.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why the first-ever deployment of LRHW is a major
step?
Let's get started.
LRHW consists of a prototype ballistic missile – an All Up Round, or AUR.
As portrayed, the missile is encased in a canister.
The missile has a diameter of 34.5 inches.
To give viewers a perspective, a Tomahawk cruise missile has a diameter of about 20
inches.
The missile has a Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) placed on top of it.
It is developed by Sandia National Laboratory and the C-HGB will be used by the Army, Navy
and Air Force.
Viewers may note that the C-HGB is probably based on the Army Hypersonic Weapon or AHW.
A boost-glide vehicle, the AHW was tested in 2011 and achieved a speed of Mach 8 and
a range of almost 4,000 miles or 6437 km.
The TELs or Transporter Erector Launchers are the modified M983A4 Heavy Expanded Mobility
Tactical Trucks (HEMTT).
M983A4 is currently being used in Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.
An M870 trailer will be used to move the TEL.
AFTDS or Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System Version 7.0 will be present for
Battle Management duties.
Each TELs will have two missile canisters.
Thunderbolt Strike marks a new milestone between the 1st MDTF, RCCTO, industry and numerous
Army partners that generated immediate feedback from stakeholders on the complex system.
Col. Ian Humphrey, RCCTO’s hypersonic weapon integration project manager, pointed to 1st
MDTF’s rapid progress in building the technical and procedural capacity to integrate the LRHW
system’s capabilities into the Defense Department’s Joint Force.
“This unit is fully trained and has proven that they can be deployed away from home station
and go right into whatever mission they’re given.”
He added, “Our Soldiers processed real missions, with real data, in real-time, to produce real
effects to learn lessons and generate readiness.
We’re training the way we will fight, and our Soldiers are ready to deploy and employ
this critical capability forward”
Harrington said “Thunderbolt Strike proved the power of interagency cooperation to build
the multi-domain force of the future.
The second half of the Army’s year of long-range precision fires will continue to represent
groundbreaking strides toward integrated deterrence in the Pacific.”
Viewers may note that a 12 January 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service said
the service has planned to field a prototype LRHW battery in fiscal year (FY) 2023.
After this deployment, the US Army intends to transition into a formal Program of Record
and implement the second and third batteries in FY2025 and FY2027.
In addition, technology insertions to upgrade the C-HGB are to take place in FY2026 and
FY2027.
Nowadays, there are air defense systems that can intercept incoming subsonic or supersonic
weapons reasonably reliably.
The extreme speed of hypersonic weapons and the ability to fly in unpredictable paths
give them a much high probability of penetrating modern air defenses.
They will be very hard to track, let alone intercept.
It is to be noted that traditional ballistic missiles also reach hypersonic speed when
they descend down on the target but they follow a predictable predefined parabolic path which
leaves scope for interception by anti-ballistic missile defense systems.
There are 3 methods being applied to make hypersonic weapons
1.
Using a Scramjet engine like the Russian Zircon missile
2.
Through the use of a Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV).
Examples of these are the Chinese DF-ZF, Russian Avangard and American CPS & LRHW
3.
Using ALBM or Air-Launched Ballistic missile like Russian Kinzhal which has been used by
Russia against Ukraine.
For some time, the American military was undecided when it comes to developing and deploying
hypersonic weapons.
This led to the U.S. military lagging in this technology.
Just a few days ago, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall confirmed that US air-launched
hypersonic missile was not successful He said at a congressional hearing,
“Those tests that we just conducted were not successful.
We did not receive data from the tests that we needed,”
The test was conducted on March 13, when an AGM-183 ARRW missile was fired from a B-52H
strategic bomber off the coast of California.
In this situation, the positive news regarding LRHW is an excellent moral booster.
In her keynote address at the 2021 annual meeting and exposition of the Association
of the United States Army, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth predicted that “fiscal
year 23 will be the year of long-range precision fires.”
The U.S. military is pursuing 9 programs that are dedicated to fielding hypersonic weapons.
There is no doubt that Hypersonic weapons will play a key part in future battles and
it remains to be seen if the US can bridge the gap.