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| Russia Nuclear Exercises, US Tests Hypersonic Weapon Components in the Virginia Sea |
Washington - As Russia staged nuclear drills in the midst of its war in Ukraine, the United States military test-flyed components of a hypersonic weapon on Wednesday. According to the Pentagon, the US Navy and Army have launched rockets from a waterfront launch pad in Virginia to test nearly a dozen hypersonic weapons trials to help develop a new class of weapons.
According to the Pentagon, the test of the hypersonic weapon component was successful. "Sandia National Laboratories ran tests from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, evaluating hypersonic weapons communications and navigation equipment and advanced materials that can withstand heat in realistic hypersonic environments," the Navy said in a statement. Thursday (27/0/222).
The hypersonic glide vehicle is launched from a rocket in the upper atmosphere before hurtling toward the target at more than five times the speed of sound or about 3,853 miles (6,200 km) per hour. The United States and its global rivals have accelerated their pace to build next-generation hypersonic weapons that rob the enemy of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.
To speed development, the Pentagon launched these experiments and prototypes using rocket-sounding smaller and therefore more affordable test vehicles to fill the critical gap between ground testing and full system flight testing.
Wednesday's test was intended to validate future aspects of the Navy's Conventional Rapid Attack (CPS) and Army Long Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHW). The glide bodies differ from their air-breathing hypersonic weapon cousins, which use the vehicle's scramjet engine and high-speed technology to forcibly compress the incoming air prior to combustion to allow sustained flight at hypersonic speeds.
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Companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp are working to develop US hypersonic weapons capabilities. The tests of US components of hypersonic weapons took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin directly monitored Moscow's nuclear drills. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu described the aim of the exercise as testing the readiness of Russia's strategic offensive forces. "To carry out a massive nuclear strike in response to an enemy nuclear strike," he said, as quoted by Russia Today, Thursday (27/02/2022).
According to the Kremlin, ground, sea and aviation deterrence forces took part in the maneuver. The target located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East was obliterated by the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile, fired from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region, and the Sineva ballistic missile, launched from the Barents Sea.
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Tu-95 strategic bombers also took part in the exercise. President Putin ordered the readiness level of Russia's strategic nuclear forces to be increased by the end of February, days after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, the US and several other Western powers have claimed that Moscow is planning to carry out a tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine which the Kremlin vehemently denies. Instead, Moscow accused Ukraine of preparing to detonate dirty bombs to trap Russia. Defense Secretary Shoigu called his fellow defense ministers the US, UK and several other countries to share Moscow's concerns.