Successful hypersonic weapons test shows U.S. still in the race, Pentagon says

The Defense Department this week confirmed it successfully tested its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept missile, sending a prototype flying at more than five times the speed of sound for what it said was an “extended period of time.”

The test was conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Research Lab, along with defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne. The missile reached altitudes greater than 65,000 and flew for more than 300 nautical miles, DARPA officials said.

The test comes amid rising concern on Capitol Hill and among private analysts that the U.S. is lagging behind China and Russia in developing the new class of weapons designed to overcome today’s increasingly sophisticated missile defense systems. Both Beijing and Moscow have claimed success with recent tests of their own hypersonic weapons.

This week’s mission marked the second such flight in DARPA’s hypersonic missile program. The first, employing a different model, was tested in September and also reached hypersonic flight speeds, officials said.

“This Lockheed Martin HAWC flight test successfully demonstrated a second design that will allow our warfighters to competitively select the right capabilities to dominate the battlefield,” said Andrew Knoedler, DARPA’s HAWC program manager. “These achievements increase the level of technical maturity for transitioning HAWC to a service program of record.”

Air-breathing vehicles use air captured from the atmosphere to achieve sustained operations. The speed and maneuverability of hypersonic missiles allow quick strikes while successfully evading defenses. Even without explosives, their force can destroy targets on the battlefield, DARPA officials said.

“We are still analyzing flight test data, but are confident that we will provide the U.S. Air Force and Navy with excellent options to diversify the technology available for their future missions,” Mr. Knoedler said.

According to published reports, the DARPA test was conducted in mid-March after Russia announced it had used a hypersonic missile in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.