An Indo-Pacific-assigned U.S. Army unit designed to counter anti-access, area denial networks deployed its hypersonic missiles for the first time last month during a Navy-hosted exercise.
Exercise Resolute Hunter is the U.S. Department of Defense’s only exercise dedicated to battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Since the drill’s inception in 2019, Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center has used it to train service members and participants from the Five Eyes nations to think about decision making and target selection in the kill chain.
This year’s iteration included the Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force. The Bravo Battery of the unit’s Long-Range Fires Battalion employed their Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, also known as Dark Eagle, between June 25 and 27 to demonstrate its ability to integrate and contribute to the kill chain.
LRHW is the MDTF’s most capable missile system, with a reported range of up to 1,725 miles. The Army views the hypersonic as a way to defeat enemy A2/AD, stating that the system can “suppress adversary long-range fires, and engage other high payoff/time critical targets.” An LRHW battery includes four launchers with two missiles each, a battery operations command vehicle and a battery operations command support vehicle.
While the Bravo Battery only operated within Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington during the exercise, the unit practiced the deployment of LRHW’s transport erector launcher, including reloading and preparing to fire. 1st MDTF also provided real-time situational awareness to the exercise’s joint command post.
“Exercise Resolute Hunter 24-2 demonstrated the critical role of Landpower and the Army’s indispensable contribution to joint operations. I’m proud of our team’s commitment to excellence and their ability to adapt and innovate in a complex and dynamic training scenario,” Bravo Battery’s commander, Capt. Jennifer Lee, said in a news release about the exercise.
The 1st MDTF, originally an experimental unit, was officially activated in 2017 as the Army looked to counter new threats from adversaries and contribute to the Indo-Pacific theater. According to the Army, the MDTFs are designed to “operate like traditional maneuver elements while also synchronizing precision fires and effects in all domains to neutralize adversary A2/AD (anti-access & area denial) networks.”
Among the MDTF’s capabilities, which include space, cyber and electronic warfare assets, its Long-Range Fires Battalion has been the unit’s most prolific capability through the deployment of new missile systems. The unit’s Mid-Range Capability, a ground-based Mk41 vertical launch system capable of striking vessels with Tomahawks and SM-6 missiles, deployed to the Indo-Pacific for the first time for an exercise in the Philippines in April.
