Army Acquisition Chief: Common Hypersonic Glide Body System ‘Highly Unlikely’ to be Deployed in 2023

Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said the U.S. Army is “highly unlikely” to deploy its Common Hypersonic Glide Body system in 2023. The Army technology chief’s statement comes after planned critical testing of the weapon system was suspended in September 2023.

The scrapped testing is not a first for the weapon system. The service branches also canceled a planned test in March.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Bush, a past Potomac Officer Club speaker, declined to provide specifics about the issue delaying the weapon’s delivery. However, he shared that the Army and the Navy are working to identify the root cause, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

Being co-developed with the U.S. Navy, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body is scheduled to launch by the end of the year.

The missile is part of an effort to stay in the lead against China and other adversaries. The service branches have been collaborating with several defense contractors to complete the system. In 2019, the Army tapped a group composed of Dynetics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Atomics to develop a prototype of the system. It also exercised an option under that contract, extending the partnership by up to four years.