The US military says it conducted a new test of a hypersonic missile, as Pentagon officials seek to match or get ahead of China’s and Russia’s advances in the cutting-edge strategic weapons technology.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says it recently completed a free-flight test of an aircraft-launched hypersonic missile that maintained a speed of more than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound (at least 3,800 miles per hour, or 6,100 kilometers per hour).
The missile flew to greater than 65,000 feet (189,812 meters) and soared over 300 nautical miles, says DARPA.
Artist’s concept of Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapons Concept (HAWC) vehicle. (DARPA)
It was the second test under the agency’s HAWC Program — named for hypersonic air-breathing weapon concept — and the missile had a different configuration from the first, which was tested last September.
According to CNN, the newest test took place in mid-March but was kept quiet to avoid appearing to escalate the geopolitical tensions surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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