Donald Trump is considering unleashing America’s £30million Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles for the first time as he weighs up new strikes on Iran.
The long-range weapon – which travels five times the speed of sound and can hit targets up to 2,000 miles away – would be able to target Iranian missile launchers that have been moved beyond the reach of current US systems.
Despite the request from US central command (Centcom), the weapon is running far behind schedule and hasn’t been declared fully operational – even as Russia and China have deployed their own versions.
The Request for Forces submission justifies the move, by saying Tehran has transferred its ballistic-missile launchers out of range of the Precision Strike Missile – a weapon that can hit targets at more than 300 miles.
No decision has been made yet on the request, Bloomberg reported, citing a source with direct knowledge.
However, Centcom’s move is yet another signal that Washington is preparing further strikes on the Islamic Republic.
While most details about Dark Eagle are shrouded in mystery, the nuclear-capable boost-glide missile is understood to reach altitudes in the upper atmosphere and can manoeuvre itself to evade air defences.
A ceasefire between Washington and Tehran has been in place since April 9, but Donald Trump is under pressure to either break the stalemate in negotiations or deliver a decisive blow to end the costly two-month war.
Donald Trump is considering unleashing the US’ £30million Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles for the first time as he weighs up new strikes on Iran
The long-range weapon – which travels five times the speed of sound and can hit targets up to 2,000 miles away – would be able to target Iranian missile launchers that have been moved beyond the reach of current US systems
Amid the ceasefire, both sides have used the time to rearm and plan, according to Bloomberg’s Becca Wasser, who said ‘future rounds of fighting may be more deadly’.
The move to deploy the missile to the Middle East, if approved, would send a message to strategic adversaries Russia and China that Washington is finally able to match a capability that they’ve long since mastered.
Moscow’s Kh-47M2 Kinzhal entered combat years ago, as did Beijing’s DF-17, leaving the US in a race to catch up.
Dark Eagle, also known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, is built to glide to its target at more than five times the speed of sound.
Each battery will cost about $2.7billion (£2billion), according to the Government Accountability Office.
Its development has suffered years of delays due to the profound technical hurdles of achieving speeds of up to Mach 5, along with supply-chain issues and testing failures.
The Pentagon is currently drawing up plans to resume major combat operations against the Islamic Republic to break its stranglehold over the vital Strait of Hormuz and force it to return to diplomatic talks.
Iran said on Thursday it would respond with ‘long and painful strikes’ on US positions if Washington renewed attacks, and restated its claim to the vital waterway.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written message to Iranians that Tehran would eliminate ‘the enemies’ abuses of the waterway’ under new management of the strait, indicating that Tehran intended to maintain its hold over it.
‘Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometres away… have no place there except at the bottom of its waters,’ he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that if the disruption caused by the closure dragged on through mid-year, global growth would fall, inflation would rise and tens of millions more people would be pushed into poverty and extreme hunger.
‘The longer this vital artery is choked, the harder it will be to reverse the damage,’ he told reporters in New York.
Two months into the conflict, the sea channel remains closed, choking off 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas supplies. That has sent global energy prices surging and heightened concerns about the risks of an economic downturn.
A thick plume of smoke rises from an oil storage facility hit by a US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, March 8
Donald Trump faces a formal US deadline today to end the war or make the case to Congress for extending it under the 1973 War Powers Resolution
While the US and Israel have spent weeks pummelling Iran’s military capability, Tehran has preserved a considerable number of its missiles and mobile launchers – with some of its arsenal hidden deep in northern mountainous terrain.
Washington officials hope renewed strikes against Iran will pressure the regime into being more willing to dismantle its nuclear programme – a major sticking point between the adversaries at the negotiating table.
According to Axios, the Pentagon is also considering taking over part of the strait in order to pry it open for commercial shipping – an operation that may involve ground troops.
On Friday, Brent crude’s price rose 83 cents to $111.23 per barrel while US benchmark crude added 12 cents to $105.19 a barrel.
Trump faces a formal US deadline today to end the war or make the case to Congress for extending it under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
The date looks set to pass without altering the course of the conflict after a senior administration official said late on Thursday that, for the purposes of the resolution, hostilities had terminated due to the April ceasefire between Tehran and Washington.
Democrats have tried repeatedly since the war began on February 28 to pass resolutions to force Trump to withdraw US forces or obtain congressional authorisation.
But Trump’s Republicans, who hold slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, have voted them down almost unanimously.
Republicans blocked a sixth such effort in the Senate on Thursday, a day before the war powers deadline, although Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has voted against previous resolutions, became the second member of her party to back the measure, along with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has backed all of the resolutions.
Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the president can wage military action for only 60 days before ending it, coming to Congress for authorisation or seeking a 30-day extension due to ‘unavoidable military necessity regarding the safety of United States Armed Forces’.
After the Iran conflict began on February 28, Trump formally notified Congress of the conflict 48 hours later, starting the 60-day deadline clock that ends May 1.
Trump reiterated on Thursday that Iran’s economy was ‘a disaster,’ but analysts said that if he expects Iran to blink first in a game of economic chicken, he may be waiting a while.
The conflict has aggravated Iran’s dire economic problems, risking calamity after the war, but it looks able to survive a standoff in the Gulf for now, despite a US blockade that has cut off energy exports.