(Bloomberg) -- The US military is unlikely to deliver its first hypersonic weapons in enough quantities to be combat-ready until the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, a congressional audit found, adding to the delay in deploying the next-generation missiles already fielded by China and Russia.

The first batch of eight new hypersonic weapons being developed by the Army and Navy could be delivered in fiscal 2025 if the highly maneuverable, low-flying weapon is successfully tested by Dec. 31, the Government Accountability Office found in its annual overview of Pentagon weapons that was released Monday.

“The Army missed its goal of fielding its first Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon battery — including missiles — by fiscal year 2023 due to integration challenges,” the GAO said. “Based on current test and missile production plans, the Army will not field its first complete battery until fiscal year 2025.”

The Army has said the program is “on track to implement required corrective actions” after past testing failures. But the GAO said that “if the Army discovers issues with missile performance in flight testing, missile deliveries and the fielding of the first operational system could be further delayed.”

Army program officials told the GAO that “once a successful flight test is achieved, the first production missile will be delivered within approximately six weeks and the first battery of eight missiles will be delivered within approximately 11 months.” 

Army spokeswoman Ellen Lovett said Monday that “for operational security reasons, we cannot provide the timing of tests in advance.”

Lockheed Martin Corp. is the systems integrator for the hypersonic weapon. It has a reported range of 1,725 miles (2,780 kilometers) and consists of a ground-launched missile equipped with a hypersonic glide body and related equipment.

More broadly, the report found the Defense Department isn’t able to deploy new weapons systems quickly enough.

“While the Department of Defense plans to invest more than $2 trillion to develop and acquire its costliest weapon programs, it continues to struggle with delivering innovative technologies quickly,” the GAO said.

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