US Army Conducts First Live-Fire Hypersonic Test at Yuma Using Repurposed HATS Launcher

The US Army has reportedly carried out its first live-fire hypersonic test using the Heavy Artillery Test System, or HATS, a large cannon launcher repurposed from the cancelled Strategic Long Range Cannon programme. The trial, conducted at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, is being seen as a lower-cost way to gather key hypersonic research data without depending solely on full-scale missile launches.

The test took place on 30 July 2026 at Yuma Proving Ground, one of the Army’s principal test and evaluation centres. It involved personnel from the Army’s DEVCOM Armaments Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Yuma Proving Ground.

Instead of firing a complete hypersonic missile, the Army used HATS to launch a specially developed Integrated Launch Package. The hardened package carried the experimental payload and was built to survive the severe acceleration and stress generated by a cannon launch before releasing the payload at very high speed.

That approach allowed engineers to focus on how the experimental payload behaved in the terminal phase of its flight. Telemetry systems, high-speed cameras and other range instrumentation tracked the event from launch to impact, generating data intended to support future hypersonic weapons development.

A key element of the event was the first live-fire demonstration of the hardened Integrated Launch Package itself. According to the reported account, the package performed successfully, showing it could endure the intense forces associated with cannon launch. That is a basic requirement if the HATS system is to be used as a practical hypersonic research platform.

HATS traces its origins to the Strategic Long Range Cannon project, an ambitious Army effort that aimed to create an ultra-long-range artillery system capable of striking targets more than 1,000 miles away, or roughly 1,609 kilometres, using rocket-assisted precision-guided projectiles.

That programme did not continue. Congress ended dedicated funding for SLRC in 2022, leading to its cancellation. Rather than discarding the launcher and associated technical work entirely, the US military later adapted the large-calibre system for experimental hypersonic testing.

In its current role, HATS is not being positioned as an operational battlefield weapon. Instead, it is being used as a specialised research tool, illustrating how hardware and engineering from a cancelled weapons project can still be folded into ongoing military science and technology efforts.

Why the Army is using a cannon for hypersonic research

The main attraction of the cannon-based method is cost and test efficiency. Full-scale hypersonic missile launches are expensive, with individual tests reportedly costing anywhere from about $9.5 million to more than $15 million, depending on the programme and vehicle involved.

By firing experimental payloads from a cannon, researchers can still study critical aspects of hypersonic technology, including material behaviour, structural performance and terminal effects, without having to conduct a complete rocket-powered flight test for every design iteration.

The Army is not presenting HATS as a substitute for conventional hypersonic flight trials. Rather, the system offers another layer in the testing ecosystem. It can complement wind-tunnel work, laboratory experiments, rocket sled trials and full missile launches, giving researchers an additional way to evaluate components and payloads under high-velocity conditions.

The latest live-fire event therefore reflects a broader US Army effort to speed up hypersonic research while keeping development costs under control. By converting technology originally built for the now-defunct Strategic Long Range Cannon into a dedicated test platform, the Army is attempting to continue extracting value from that programme while broadening its ability to assess next-generation hypersonic systems.