Intro:
U.S. Tested Hypersonic Missile in March But Kept Quiet to Avoid Antagonizing Russia: Report
The U.S. also cancelled a scheduled ICBM test for the second time on Friday.
"The U.S. tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but didn’t publicize the test to avoid inflaming tensions with Russia as the country continues to decimate Ukraine with its needless war. Any confusion between the U.S. and Russia during a time of heightened world conflict runs the risk of starting a nuclear war, and the potential of destroying all life on planet Earth, something many humans who live on Earth say would be a bad thing.
The news of America’s hypersonic missile test comes from CNN, which cites an unnamed senior official with the U.S. military. The missile, reportedly fired from a B-52 somewhere on the west coast, traveled at a height of 65,000 feet and a distance of 300 miles, according to the unnamed official.
The hypersonic missile tested last month was part of Lockheed Martin’s Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, though other major defense contractors are also working on hypersonic missiles for the U.S. in a race to match the capabilities of China and Russia. North Korea also claims to have tested a hypersonic missile, though details about that program are still unclear.
Russia even claimed to have used its Kinzhal hypersonic missile technology against Ukraine to destroy an underground weapons depot on .
If true, it would be the first known use of a hypersonic missile in war. It’s not clear if the U.S. hypersonic test occurred before or after Russia’s use of the weapon because the CNN report only cites “mid-March” without narrowing it further. . .
Hypersonic missile technology is still very much in its infancy, with many critics questioning its usefulness and the technology underlying the construction of these systems. Lockheed Martin’s Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon failed in at least three tests during 2021, according to the Arms Control Association. But critics have never really kept enormous weapons systems from being produced, especially during a time of heightened alert.
. . .The U.S. also cancelled an ICBM test on Friday, which had already been postponed from earlier in Russia’s war against Ukraine. ICBM tests are often conducted by the U.S. throughout the year and often land near the Marshall Islands. Typically, these tests don’t get much coverage (unless North Korea does them, naturally), but holding off these tests is a big deal. If Russia interpreted a test as an actual nuclear missile heading for Moscow, Putin and his advisors would have roughly 20 minutes to decide whether to retaliate. . ."
READ MORE >> https://gizmodo.com/u-s-tested-hypersonic-missile-in-march-but-kept-quiet-1848749636
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While hypersonic weapons are one of the US military’s top priorities, the new GAO report frets that the department has not formally laid out who decides what programs are viable and how they are prioritized. The GAO report follows a Congressional Research Service review last month, which suggested DoD needs to take a harder look at “the rationale for hypersonic weapons, their expected costs, and their implications for strategic stability and arms control.
March test ‘one of the biggest steps we've seen’ in development of new hypersonic weapons, company officials say.
That the United States is behind China and Russia in the area of hypersonic weapons is no secret. But the successful endurance test of a new jet-launched hypersonic in March is giving weapons maker Lockheed Martin hope that the United States is on track to close the gap.
Defense One last week sat down with representatives from Lockheed Martin at the company’s Skunk Works site in Palmdale, California, shortly after the Defense Department announced the successful test of a jet-launched cruise missile—the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC—in March. Lockheed Martin is one of the contractors on that program, and the test coincided with the Russian use of a hypersonic missile against a Ukrainian military target in March . . ."
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