Is The U.S. Winning The Hypersonic Missile Arms Race

Hypersonic Missile VIA artist rendering. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin.  

19Fortyfive: Is America Now Winning the Hypersonic Missile Arms Race? 

While not all has gone according to plan, it seems the U.S. military is moving forward quickly on its plan to build and deploy hypersonic missiles and weapons: On Monday, the United States announced yet another successful test of its scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile known as the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC. This news comes directly on the heels of last week’s announcement of successful tests of two different kinds of hypersonic boost-glide missiles; Lockheed Martin’s AGM-183A ARRW and DARPA’s OpFires missile. 

It would seem America’s hypersonic efforts are beginning to hit their stride.  

"The test demonstrated how we’ve rapidly matured affordable scramjet technology, which is the basis for air-breathing weapons,” said Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology for Raytheon Missiles & Defense in a press release. 

“Our second HAWC flight test success is an important milestone for our nation as we advance hypersonic systems.”  

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WNU Editor: It is still too early to say who is "winning". The U.S., Russia, and China are developing hypersonic missiles for different reasons, and the technologies that they are using are different.