The U.S. Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW)

A January 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report, “The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan,” when discussing hypersonic weapons, suggests their high costs limit inventories, so they lack the volume needed to counter the immense numbers of Chinese air and naval platforms.

Given concerns about Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHW) costs and how costs could influence LRHW inventories, policymakers might decide to further examine LRHW missile costs as well as quantities of LRHW missiles needed to support potential combat operations in various theaters where LRHW units could be employed.