David Axe, War Is Boring: U.S. Air Force to Industry: Make a Mach-5 Missile
Americans get serious about hypersonic munitions
Spurred by developments in Russia and China, the U.S. Air Force is taking steps toward acquiring a hypersonic surface-to-air missile capable of traveling faster than Mach 5.
For more than 20 years the Air Force — not to mention other U.S. government agencies and private industry — have been experimenting with hypersonic technology. But as of mid-2017 that experimentation hasn’t translated into a working weapon.
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WNU Editor: From National Interest, here is a summary on developments in hyper-sonic technology ....
.... For its part, the Pentagon has pursued several parallel development paths for hypersonic weaponry. The Defense Department spent $108 million on hypersonics research and development in 2016 and $378 million in 2016. The department’s 2018 budget request includes $292 million for hypersonics research. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force and Army have all tested “boost-glide” vehicles that launch atop rocket boosters then glide, unpowered, at hypersonic speeds. Most of the test flights have ended in failure.
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