The commander of the US Pacific Army previously "swore a vow" that he would deal with China by equipping himself with the "Dark Eagle" hypersonic missile, but now the US military is "riding a tiger", because not only has the "Dark Eagle" hypersonic missile not yet been test-launched, but the cost of this hypersonic missile has skyrocketed. According to US media reports, although the "Dark Eagle" hypersonic missile is "steadily advancing," the US Congress has raised doubts, because the unit price of the "Dark Eagle" system has been as high as $41 million, and in fact, the unit price of the Trident IID5 submarine-launched nuclear missile purchased by the US Navy is only $31 million.
The U.S. Navy is equipped with a large number of strategic missile nuclear submarines, equipped with the Trident IID5 intercontinental ballistic missile, which is a missile propelled by a solid rocket engine and has the carrying capacity of a warhead. In addition to the Trident IID5, the United States also has the armament of the Minuteman-3 intercontinental ballistic missile, but the Minuteman-3 only has a nuclear warhead and is deployed through underground silos. The United States already has sufficient nuclear deterrence capability through the armament of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but in recent years the United States has been promoting the development of hypersonic missiles, because the strategic advantage that the United States has previously gained through ballistic missile defense systems has been wiped out.
Originally, the United States broke the nuclear strategic balance established by ballistic missiles through the ballistic missile defense system, but due to the emergence of high-speed missiles, the United States ballistic missile defense system could not continue to play a role, so the United States was also determined to develop hypersonic missiles, so there was the "Dark Eagle" project, which is also known as the long-range rapid weapon system (LRHW), is a missile to be equipped by the US Army, judging from the information released by the Pentagon, "Dark Eagle" It is planned to develop a prototype in 2024 and conduct tests. In fact, the progress of the "Dark Eagle" has lagged behind, and the US Army was supposed to test it in 2023, but in the end there were no results.
When the test was not carried out, the cost of the "Dark Eagle" high-tech missile was already far higher than that of the United States intercontinental ballistic missile, which will make the US Pentagon even more worried; once the cost continues to rise, it will have a great impact on the scale of future equipment, and at the same time, it is very likely to be forced to dismount, after all, the funds must be approved by the US Congress. In fact, the US Air Force's air-launched hypersonic missile AGM-183A project has been discontinued, because of the delay in progress and the failure of the test, so that the US Air Force finally abandoned the project. The last tests of the AGM-183A were carried out in the Pacific Ocean, where the B-52H of the US Air Force took off from Guam with the AGM-183A and hit targets at a range located in the Marshall Islands.
Although the U.S. defense budget is increasing, it is also increasing the size of its national debt, which now exceeds $34 trillion, and it is clear that the U.S. is borrowing money to maintain its military strength. If the cost of the "Dark Eagle" project continues to rise, the Pentagon will have to consider whether to continue the development, and in fact, the untimely death of the AGM-183A hypersonic missile project has already sent a clear signal. The United States is "doing nothing" in the field of hypersonic missiles, but it has more goals, including the use of attack nuclear submarines equipped with hypersonic missiles, so as to further deter China.