The US has successfully tested a Raytheon Technologies Corp air-breathing hypersonic weapon, which uses air captured from the atmosphere to achieve sustained propulsion, the Pentagon has said in a statement. Monday’s launch became the third successful test of that class of US hypersonic weapon since 2013, the statement added.
The development program for the Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) is run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, with private-sector firms Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp competing for the ultimate contract.
“Advancing our nation's hypersonic capabilities is a critical national imperative, and this was an important step forward. Having back-to-back successful flight tests gives us even greater confidence in the technical maturity of our HAWC prototype,” Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon's Missiles & Defense business unit, said.
The statement comes after a failed test of a US hypersonic missile in the state of Hawaii late last month, which the Pentagon claimed occurred because of a malfunction during the launch.
Hawaii was the second unsuccessful attempt to test missiles under the Conventional Prompt Strike program, designed to develop hypersonic weapons installed on Zumwalt destroyers and Virginia-class submarines. The first launch failed in October 2021 due to a malfunction in the boosters.
Russia was the first country in the world to achieve modern hypersonic capability after putting the Kinzhal (‘Dagger’) nuclear-capable air-to-ground missile system into service in late 2017. China followed suit with the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle in October 2019, while the US has been working on a half-dozen hypersonic weapons.
Hypersonic weapons move in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200 kilometers (around 3,800 miles) per hour.