According to service
officials from the Rapid, the delivery of the first prototype hypersonic
hardware to soldiers of 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (5 3 FA),
17th Field Artillery Brigade is completed two days ahead of the deadline
Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office.
Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon or LRHW includes a battery operations centre, four transporter-erector-launchers, and modified trucks and trailers that make up the ground equipment.
The Long-Range
Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, comprises a battery operations centre, four
transporter-erector-launchers, and modified trucks and trailers that serve as
ground equipment.
Because the domestic
private sector had never built a hypersonic weapon, the Army collaborated with
industry to develop the industrial base for the hypersonic weapon glide body.
The service also manufactured launchers, trucks, trailers, and the battle
operation centre required to assemble the weapon battery.
Lockheed Martin is the weapon system integrator for the Army’s hypersonic capability, which will be launched from a mobile truck. Dynetics was chosen to build the missile’s hypersonic glide body. The glide body is being developed for use by all military branches. However, it will be launched from different platforms depending on the branch.
Now that it has the
necessary equipment, the unit can begin training for the first joint flight
campaign test with the Navy, scheduled for the first quarter of FY22. In
addition, the unit will prepare for future tests in the fourth quarter of FY22
and the second quarter of FY23.
The first test of the
Common-Hypersonic Glide Body, or C-HGB, occurred in March 2020, when a missile
launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, and hit its
target with a 6-inch accuracy.
Hypersonic weapons can
fly faster than Mach 5 — faster than the speed of sound — and can change
altitudes and azimuths, making them difficult to detect. The C-HGB comprises
the warhead, guidance system, cabling, and thermal protection shield of the
weapon.
The 5-3 FA will not
participate in the hypersonic flight test scheduled for the first quarter of
FY22. The 5-3 FA, through training and a joint flight campaign, will help the
Army develop the doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures to operate the
capability within formations.
This prototype, led by
the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), deploys
LRHW components to allow Soldiers to fully train with the system and create
tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
Hypersonic weapons, which can move at speeds greater than five times the
speed of sound (Mach 5+), are a novel capability that provides a unique
combination of speed, manoeuvrability, and altitude to defeat time-critical,
well-defended, and high-value targets. The Army’s primary modernization aim is
long-range precision fires, and hypersonic missile is one of the main
modernization areas the Department of Defence seeks to ensure continued combat
superiority.
The United States is
racing to develop hypersonic weapon capability and systems to defend against hypersonic
missiles. China and Russia are both working hard to develop and test hypersonic
weapons. Russia has recently launched its Tsirkon missile from a submarine making
the missile deployable anywhere in the world.