"The reality is that the United States has a series of concepts for how it believes it can fight effectively, and we have a good understanding now of where we would employ hypersonic capability in that," Hicks said on Thursday.
"I don't want to say much more than that, for obvious reasons, but I did mention today we are also really invested in counter-hypersonic because we want to make sure we can defend against others using hypersonic capabilities."
The US approach to hypersonic capabilities is different from what the Defense Department believes are Russia's or China's approaches to such capabilities, Hicks said.
The Defense Department would welcome more collaboration with institutions like Purdue University on counter-hypersonics, Hicks also said, adding that partnerships with the scientific community are critical to developing defense technology such as hypersonics.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a June report said the Pentagon needed to improve oversight and coordination in order to effectively develop counter-hypersonic weapons.
The watchdog said the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) does not have plans to get early independent assessments of the program's cost and risks, which it said would be significant.