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| Boeing's X-51 hypersonic cruise missile |
Hawaii - The United States' new test of a hypersonic missile appears to have failed again. The US Department of Defense announced on June 30, 2022, that the Hawaii test ended in failure. This is also a sign that the project is going backwards.
Quoted from Military Watch Magazine, the US Department of Defense said it remains confident that it is on track to field offensive and defensive hypersonic capabilities by the target date beginning in the early 2020s.
This failure apparently happened not only once. In fact, the failure marked the second failed test flight in the Conventional Prompt Strike missile program.
As is well known, the program was set up for strategic weapons to equip the Zumwalt Class destroyers and Virginia Class submarines. Not only that, the missile is also expected to be developed into a land-based variant. Hypersonic weapons are indeed being developed by many developed countries as they are now.
Russia began fielding this weapon in 2017. Then, China followed two years later. North Korea will also be following it starting in 2021. This indicates that a superpower like the US is unexpectedly far behind. Moreover, its rival, Russia has a very powerful hypersonic weapon.
Russia first used its hypersonic assets in combat in March 2022 when Russia demonstrated its Kh-47M2 ballistic missile capabilities. This ballistic missile has a range of 2,000 km and a speed of Mach 10. Not only Russia, China, which has recently been criticized by the US in the Indo-Pacific, is also one step ahead in terms of hypersonic weapons.
Quoted from the Eurasian Times, Chinese scientists have even made claims over its hypersonic weapons program. They have claimed that they have produced next-generation hypersonic weapons with advances in infrared tracking that the US military may not have until 2025.
According to the researchers, the weapons program has heat-seeking capabilities. This allows China's hypersonic missiles to target almost any target with incredible accuracy and speed, including stealth aircraft, ships and even road-moving vehicles.
In fact, according to the South China Morning Post, a military expert said that “a hypersonic surface-to-air missile can catch up and destroy an F-22 (Raptor) in seconds if it fires a missile or drops a bomb at close range.”
Indeed, hypersonic weapons are highly regarded for their ability to evade interception more effectively than supersonic or subsonic missiles. It also has a longer range due to its flight profile and hits targets with more kinetic energy which is very useful for anti-ship roles.