The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on Friday regarding the Department of Defense's major acquisition programs. The report states that three of the Pentagon's ongoing hypersonic weapons programs are at risk of being delayed or delivering systems that have not been fully demonstrated. The programs detailed in the report are the Air Force's Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM), the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), and the Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS).

The report stated, "More broadly, these findings contribute to growing evidence that programs using the MTA pathway are not delivering fieldable capabilities faster." It also stated, "Rather, the use of the MTA pathway has largely been to develop immature technologies that the department has deemed important for acquisition programs with estimated costs equivalent to [a major defense acquisition program]." The GAO urged the Department of Defense to utilize rapid acquisition pathways, such as the MTA authority, only for programs that require already matured technologies.

Delays in finalizing the HACM's design forced the Air Force to reduce the number of flight tests from seven to five. The report stated, "The program has already descoped the rapid prototyping effort from seven to five planned flight tests." The Air Force planned to begin the HACM's flight testing phase in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. Program officials told the GAO that any additional delays during testing are likely to push the weapon past its due date. The report stated, "If a significant flight test failure occurs, it is likely that the program will not be able to complete all five tests within the 5-year rapid prototyping timeframe."

The Air Force has prioritized efforts supporting the HACM's first flight test. Program officials told the GAO that this prioritization included conducting parts validation testing while simultaneously completing the weapon's design. These officials also stated that performing parts validation testing at the same time as design completion could necessitate redesigning key parts if they fail validation testing. Delays would likely disrupt the Air Force's plans to begin rapid fielding of the HACM in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. The Air Force's budget request for fiscal year 2027 includes $404 million for purchasing the HACM and $806 million for continuing testing, capability enhancement, and industrial base capacity investment.

For the Army's LRHW program, missing, inconsistent, and unclear work standards for missile production have delayed the delivery of the second battery by at least six months beyond the original schedule. The Army began fielding the first LRHW battery at the end of 2025 and is now expected to deliver the second battery in early 2027. Technical issues discovered during flight testing for the LRHW forced the Army to cancel several tests. These issues pushed delivery of the weapon to early 2026, which is over two years past its initial goal.

The Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike program encountered problems during initial production, requiring the program and contractor to address quality issues on the missile production line. This caused production delays and resulted in the Navy postponing the integration of the weapon onto its DDG Zumwalt-class destroyers. The Army and Navy failed to conduct an industrial base assessment before starting production. The report stated, "For these interrelated programs, DOD took steps towards improving the rate of missile production."

The report stated, "According to program officials, both the LRHW and CPS programs are now conducting production quality reviews." It added, "For example, program officials told us that the Army worked with a third-party consultant to identify production challenges." Similarly, the report stated, "program officials told us that the Navy is conducting its own reviews." Complications from early flight tests created a production bottleneck that led both services to pause manufacturing until the missile had successfully flown. Officials told the GAO that one contractor continued to experience facility issues, with both services working with the company to implement improvements.