21 March, 2020

US Military test hypersonic weapon while the world is in crisis

The US Department of Defense confirmed to successfully tested a hypersonic glide body in a flight experiment conducted from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, March 19 at approximately 2230 local time.

The US Navy and US Army jointly executed the launch of a common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB), which flew at hypersonic speed to a designated impact point. Spending millions of dollars in the process whilst the world is in a catastrophic meltdown over the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis.


Hypersonic weapons, capable of flying at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5), are highly manoeuvrable and operate at varying altitudes. Further enabling the US to fight wars and attack targets remotely. Delivering hypersonic weapons is one of the department's highest technical research and engineering priorities. The information gathered from this and future experiments will further inform DOD's hypersonic technology development, and this event is a major milestone towards the department's goal of fielding hypersonic warfighting capabilities in the early- to mid-2020s.

''This test builds on the success we had with Flight Experiment 1 in October 2017, in which our C-HGB achieved sustained hypersonic glide at our target distances,'' said Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe, Director, Navy's Strategic Systems Programs,  ''In this test we put additional stresses on the system and it was able to handle them all, due to the phenomenal expertise of our top-notch team of individuals from across government, industry and academia. Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability.''

The C-HGB – when fully fielded – will comprise the weapon's conventional warhead, guidance system, cabling, and thermal protection shield.









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