USA har lenge slitt med å få til dette. Fremdeles har de ikke samme våpen som Kina og Russland, men de er på god vei. (Red.)
US hypersonic missile passes test, puts
‘exclamation point’ on development program
By
PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN
STARS AND STRIPES • January
31, 2023
An artist’s concept of Hypersonic
Air-breathing Weapons Concept missile, or HAWC. The military successfully
tested the hypersonic missile recently, bringing it a step closer to having an
operational version of the weapon, developers said. (Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency)
The U.S. has
successfully tested another hypersonic missile, bringing the
military a step closer to having an operational version of the weapon in its
arsenal, developers said.
Hypersonic
missiles travel at least five times the speed of sound and are being developed
to strike targets from extremely long distances on short notice.
The U.S. has been
under pressure to establish its hypersonic capabilities after Chinese and
Russian announcements of successful tests and growing concern that
its program is lagging behind those of its adversaries.
Completed in
January at an unspecified location, the test was part
of a project known as the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapons Concept,
or HAWC, developed by the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, a DARPA statement Monday said.
HAWC missiles use
air-breathing engines to stay aloft, allowing them to fly at lower altitudes
and maneuver over distances to destroy targets with kinetic energy rather than
explosive warheads.
The Lockheed
Martin missile, with its Aerojet Rocketdyne scramjet engine, was launched from
an Air Force B-52 bomber, the statement said, adding that it exceeded Mach 5,
which is roughly 3,800 mph, and flew over 300 nautical miles at more than
60,000 feet in altitude.
It followed a
similar test in March and an initial HAWC test in September 2021 that used a
Raytheon Technologies missile with a Northrop Grumman scramjet engine.
“This month’s
flight added an exclamation point to the most successful hypersonic
airbreathing flight test program in U.S. history,” Walter Price, an Air Force
deputy for the HAWC program, was quoted in Monday’s statement as saying.
Overall, it was
the fourth successful flight of the HAWC program since 2021.
Tests of other
hypersonic systems at times haven’t been so lucky. In June, a test of the
Common Hypersonic Glide Body, a joint venture between the Navy and Army, failed
because of an anomaly, according to the Pentagon.
The AGM-183A
Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, a hypersonic air-to-ground missile planned
for use by the Air Force, suffered a series of failures when testing began a
few years ago, but it has recently seen more success.
Hypersonic
missiles would be harder for enemies to detect and avoid compared with
conventional anti-ballistic missiles. But making them controllable and
practical are continuing obstacles.
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