Pentagon going hypersonic with long-range rapid attack weapon
This weapon may be a token of the real dangers of the 21st century … hypersonic drones, able to deliver weapons at appears of 7 to ten times the speed of sound.
The significance amounts to a fulfilment of the video game model of war where operators in some deep underground bunker or some nuclear submarine can launch smart weapons that can be over foreign territory in a few minutes or hours with the ability to maneuver and find their targets. China has already tested a rocket launched version and the US has a more plane like version in development.
The smartness makes these things very different form traditional nuclear tipped ballistic missiles. For example, image these weapons as a counterbalance to an Iranian nuclear capability. The US could announce that any evidence Iranian movement of missiles or nuclear activation would immediately evoke a fusillade of hypersonic robots … launched from submarines, from Israel, or from the US itself. Without the loss of human pilot’s lives or the taboo of nuclear war, weapons like this would be all too easy to use.
Then too, what happens if such weapons are armed over the Ukrainian front?
The hypersonic is the Pentagon’s main choice for a new long-range, rapid attack weapon, a senior official said.
According to the Washington Times, Alan R. Shaffer, principal deputy assistant defense secretary for research and engineering, told a defense industry conference that prototypes and recent tests proved concepts for hypersonic arms.