The US military announced on Tuesday that it had successfully tested a hypersonic missile for the second time. A technology on which China and Russia have taken the lead. The Darpa, scientific arm of the American army, specified in a press release that the missile launched from an aircraft had traveled more than 300 nautical miles (550 km) at five times the speed of sound (at least 6,100 km / h), and reaches an altitude of 20,000 m.
It was about the second test of hypersonic missile HAWC (Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept) with aerobic propulsion, ie it uses the oxygen present in the atmosphere for its combustion. The previous test, in September, was conducted with a different launcher, said Darpa.
A hypersonic glider under development
According to CNN, the trial was conducted in mid-March and kept secret until then to avoid any escalation after Russia invaded Ukraine. “This trial of Lockheed Martin’s HAWC demonstrated the success of a second design that will allow our fighters to select the best weaponry to dominate the battlefield,” commented HAWC program director Andrew Knoedler.
The Pentagon is also developing a hypersonic glider called ARRW (pronounced Arrow), but its first full-scale test failed in April 2020. Hypersonic missiles are designed to fly at high speeds and low altitudes, and to change direction. direction in flight and not following a linear and predictable trajectory, which makes their interception more difficult.
China tested a hypersonic missile in August that circled the Earth in orbit before descending to its target, which it only missed by a few miles. Russia last month claimed it had used hypersonic missiles twice in Ukraine, at a fuel depot in the south of the country and an underground missile and ammunition warehouse near Ivano-Frankivsk in the west.