U.S Air Force Have Tested Their First Ever Hypersonic Cruise Missiles

Defense advanced research project agencies take a step closer to acquire the air-launched hypersonic cruise missile, and the project is kept in partnership with the U.S Air Force. The U.S military has done the free-flight test of HAWC (Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept).

The U.S can use the new hypersonic missiles on the battleground. Russian forces have claimed in July and successfully tested their hypersonic cruise missile.

Earlier this year, the U.S military is focusing on developing different hypersonic missiles. However, they have dropped the plans of weapons that are electrically powered.

These new hypersonic missiles will have an air-breathing engine and have a speed five times greater than the sound. Raytheon Technologies has tested these hypersonic cruise missiles, and the firm has released the missiles from an un-named aircraft, and this missile contains the supersonic speed that comes from its solid rocket motor.

This mission has multiple objectives mention by DARPA: booster ignition, vehicle integration, release sequence, engine ignition, and booster separation. But the hypersonic missile operation of the U.S has failed twice when they are working on these parameters. HWAC can perform well in the atmosphere where oxygen is available, DARPA claimed. It is necessary to make it undetectable because of its high speed. Even without the usage of high explosives, the hypersonic speed makes it a kinetic weapon.

Reuters has said that since 2013, that is the first test of any weapon. The first test flight is the year’s effort of both government and industry who made efforts to achieve this challenging goal. HAWC said that this is the success of developing next-generation weapons by the U.S military. But no date is set to launch this transition.

The U.S Department of Defense has said that these types of hypersonic weapons are for national security. Wes Kremer, president of the defense business unit, said that both the allies and U.S must deter the use of these weapons and will help to defeat enemies. Raytheon has allied with the Northrop Grumman to develop engines for these hypersonic missiles. The usage of scramjet engine technology will compress the air before combustion.

These hypersonic missiles can strike the target more quickly than subsonic missiles. These missiles will help the U.S military forces to strike China and Russia in the development of weapons.

U.S Air Force is spending half a billion dollars in preparing these hypersonic missiles annually. They are doing it in the hope of launching one of these missiles in the coming couple of years.

These hypersonic missiles are different weapons. Pentagon’s assistant director said that these cruise missiles can attack targets and provide seekers a value. A seeker can put the glider to the edge of the atmosphere in the boost phase. The hypersonic missiles without the glider will be less accurate, and the glider can perform better.

Written by: Maryem

Reported by: Mishaal Muzaffar