In a statement the Pentagon said, the US Army and Navy have successfully tested prototypes of hypersonic weapon component that will form part of new weapon systems.
The tests occurred on the same day U.S. President Joe expressed concerns on China’s hypersonic weapons.
The Pentagon’s statement mentions that Sandia National Laboratories monitored the tests from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The results of the test will help “form the development of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) and the Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) offensive hypersonic strike”.
Both branches of the US military will conduct a flight test of the common hypersonic missile platform in in fiscal year 2022, which began on October 1.
Hypersonic weapons can travel at more than five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere.
These tests “demonstrated advanced hypersonic technologies, capabilities, and prototype systems in a realistic operating environment,” said the Pentagon.
Since the early 2000s, Washington has actively pursued the development of hypersonic weapons as a part of its conventional global strike program.
US weapon developers including Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, are among the companies striving to develop hypersonic weapon capability.
