Posted on 10/21/21
| News Source: i24
The Pentagon announced that the United States military conducted three successful tests on Wednesday for a program to develop new hypersonic missile weapons.
News of the tests arrived shortly after US President Joe Biden expressed worries towards China’s hypersonic weapon capabilities the same day.
Experiments conducted on the weapon components “demonstrated advanced hypersonic technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems in a realistic operating environment,” a Pentagon statement said, Reuters reported.
The three tests were conducted by the Sandia National Laboratory at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Findings from the study will assist in “the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) offensive hypersonic strike,” a statement detailed, according to Reuters.
Hypersonic missiles are advanced weapons which can move at over five times the speed of sound, or 3,853 miles per hour.
Their immense speed poses a challenge to existing missile warning systems.
China, Russia, and North Korea all recently launched alleged tests of hypersonic weapons, potentially prompting the US to respond in kind.