Has the U.S. Air Force caught up to near-peer competitors regarding hypersonic missiles? Perhaps, after the first successful air launch of one of the fully functional futuristic weapons.
Setbacks and delays had plagued the highly-anticipated weapons program. But on Friday, a B-52 off the California coast fired an Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW). The test proceeded without a hitch.
Per CNN:
The AGM-183A missile achieved hypersonic speeds more than five times the speed of sound and it detonated in the terminal area, the 96th Test Wing said. All of the objectives of the test were met, according to the Air Force.
The ARRW is a boost-glide missile that uses a booster rocket to accelerate a projectile to hypersonic speeds. A glide vehicle then separates from the booster and uses inertia to travel to its target at hypersonic speeds.
This test was the first of the entire system, known as an All-Up-Round test. Previous launches focused on the booster rocket.
The ARRW missile suffered a series of failures in testing last year, forcing the Air Force to delay the project. The Air Force described the failures as “anomalies.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley compared China’s 2021 suspected hypersonic missile test to the Sputnik Crisis.
American Liberty News reported at the time:
U.S. military brass often more subtly expressed their concerns over the expanding size and capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Now, Milley says that Beijing’s apparent launch of a nuclear-capable missile that orbited Earth is “very close” to a Sputnik moment.
The moment Milley referred to is the Sputnik Crisis of October 1957. The ability of the Soviet Union to launch an artificial satellite that fall sparked fears that Russia had surpassed the U.S. technologically.
In November 2021, Russian media alleged that “President Vladimir Putin declared that if the West deploys missiles to Ukraine that could reach Moscow ‘in five to ten minutes,’ Russia is ready to counter by deploying a ‘new naval hypersonic missile, which may reach [Western] decision-makers in 5 minutes, flying at Mach 9 speed.’
While the Kremlin is known for hyperbole and hysteria, Russia’s Mach 9 3M22 Tsirkon hypersonic missile is a genuine threat.
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As we have seen during the war with Ukraine, Russian military equipment is nowhere near as good as Putin brags it is. Putin was trained by the KGB, he is a first class liar and proud of it. Not only is his equipment CRAP, but his army is ill trained and poorly provisioned. To say nothing of the incompetent leadership, from the generals on down. Not enough arms, food, uniforms. Not enough anything! To believe that they have hypersonic weapons is sheer stupidity. God bless the U.S.A.
Remember that we have satellites and radar though that were able to track the tests. They did indeed approach mach 9. Whether they can control them is another question, but just the fact they do and China does means we must respond in kind.
Hi
The Sputnik crisis triggered concern about American education. It’s been downhill ever since, thanks to Democrats and teachers’ unions.
Putin knows that the USA could pound his forces if it came to that. No doubt, at this time China knows it too.
Need some for the Navy & Army