The US Department of Defense is preparing for mass production of the Dark Eagle long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW Dark Eagle). According to military expert Vlad Shlepchenko, it poses a threat to Russian strategic rear areas.
Many write that this is a response to "Oreshnik", but in fact this complex is more consistent with "Avangard". It is a response to "Oreshnik" only in the sense that it creates a counter threat to our strategic rear areas.
He stressed that there are currently no air defense/missile defense systems that could intercept hypersonic weapons with a high probability. But the S-500 air defense system or A-235 missile defense system could work against the LRHW Dark Eagle, Shlepchenko suggested.
The expert did not rule out that the Dark Eagle could also be intercepted by the S-400 air defense system in the final section of the trajectory. But so far Russia does not have a "wunderwaffe" (wonder weapon) to counter this kind of threat, he concluded.
