US to test hypersonic missiles in 2023, catch up with Russia & China
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The US Army will test two hypersonic missiles through the Summer of 2023 at White Sands Testing Grounds in New Mexico.
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US hypersonic missile (Raytheon Missiles & Defense via Reuters).
The US Army will conduct two tests of new hypersonic weapons delivery systems this summer at White Sands Testing Grounds in New Mexico, according to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Douglas Bush, who spoke at the Center for New American Security (CNAS) on Friday.
The weapons tests are planned to proceed almost simultaneously with the deployment of the first rounds of the systems.
Bush said, "We have got two big hypersonic tests coming at White Sands over the summer," adding that "they will be [almost] concurrent with getting the first hypersonic rounds deployed to Army units.
The tests will be conducted in collaboration with the US Navy, which is participating in the initiative to develop hypersonic weapons delivery systems in order to catch up with Russia and China, according to Bush.
"We are doing the program with the Navy. It is a new technology. We are going to learn from the testing," Bush explained.
US falls behind Russia, China hypersonic race
The National Interest highlighted on January 1 the weakness of the US in developing offensive hypersonic weapons, as well as in confronting them.
According to the outlet, the United States urgently needs to develop and deploy both offensive and defensive hypersonic weapons capabilities, because it is falling behind as China and Russia have both tested and deployed hypersonic missiles, while the United States is conducting its first successful hypersonic missile test in December 2022.
However, the US has not deployed any hypersonic weapons to date, and the existing US missile defense systems are not yet capable of shooting down adversaries' hypersonic weapons, leaving the US highly vulnerable at this time, NI wrote.
It is noteworthy that Washington conducted three “failed” hypersonic missile tests in 2021, according to Defense News.
Read more: Warn, track, target hypersonic threats: Raytheon's new $250mln deal
