MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. The United States most likely does not possess real hypersonic weapon technologies, as follows from an analysis of reports about the Resolute Hunter 24-2 special exercise, military expert Alexander Stepanov, the program director of the Academy of Political Sciences, has told TASS.
"In order to test the Dark Eagle's launch capabilities, the Resolute Hunter 24-2 exercise was held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, in late June. Resolute Hunter 24-2 is the US Department of Defense's only BMC2ISR-class special exercise," said Stepanov, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "In the numerous enthusiastic articles (probably sponsored by the American military-industrial complex) by Western experts in ‘respected’ periodicals, and their exalted Ukrainian yes-men, we are witnessing a targeted hoax, a twisting of the facts to fit a desired picture - the existence of another ‘game changer’. But in all likelihood the Americans have mastered hypersonic technologies only virtually," Stepanov said.
He stressed that, according to the Pentagon, a battery of this type of weapon, part of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, conducted "electronic launches" of hypersonic missiles. Since there were no real launches, according to the expert, the key task of testing out hypersonic systems - that of obtaining the entire set of data, verifying the performance of mechanisms and electronic systems under critical conditions and temperatures - was not fulfilled.
"During hypersonic flight, the plasma cloud that envelops the missile, is capable of burning any integrated equipment, which in turn can lead to one to lose control of the missile in flight. What these ‘exercises’ tell us is that there is no objective data, photo or video evidence of the Dark Eagle being used in conditions approximating combat ones, either. True, ground testing of communications and control systems is certainly important. But this is the primary stage of the tests, and not the key one," Stepanov noted.
US research into hypersonic weapons
In general, the Dark Eagle system is being developed in preparation for full deployment on the basis of multi-domain task forces (MDTF). Currently the Pentagon continues to test their capabilities. Dark Eagle, Typhon and PrSM systems (based on HIMARS) are capable of covering the strike echelon within a range of 3,000 km, 1,700 km and 500 km respectively. At the same time, despite the stated characteristics, all types of missiles of these systems can carry a special warhead and cope with the tasks assigned to tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons.
Stepanov noted that a distinctive feature of this process was the massive information campaign launched by Western media to popularize said products.
"In reality, the Pentagon's plans for deploying MDTFs in Europe and the Asia-Pacific Region require an appropriate media accompaniment to justify future allocations from the US and NATO budgets to realize this inflated offensive concept. A total of five MDTFs are to be created. Three of them will be focused on operations in the Pacific (against China), one in the European theater will be primarily directed against Russia, and the reserve one will be located in Fort Liberty, North Carolina," he noted.