One of the misconceptions is that the US doesn’t have hypersonic weapons. And sure enough at a missile defense conference just last summer, senior leaders flatly and publicly say the US is number three when it comes to hypersonics, behind both China and Russia in terms of demonstrated capability, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening at a massively rapid pace.
General Thurgood is in charge of the armies and navies hypersonic weapons development program spoke at the conference as well. And he talked about long range hypersonic weapon, it’s a new hypersonic weapon that’s extremely capable, that they’re very focused on timing will be available as soon as 2023. So the testing the development is already underway, and fast tracking the schedule so that that kind of deterrent, that kind of offensive possibility is available as soon as possible. As part of that weapons developers with hypersonics. You hear a lot about how they can’t hit maneuvering targets. Well, maybe maybe not hang on a sec. The army and weapons developers with hypersonics are looking at what they call it Tech Insertion.
And it’s essentially using software and different kinds of sensor systems to upgrade the hypersonic targeting so that it can actually stay with and take out moving target. As technology isn’t unprecedented, the tomahawk lock for for example, as a two way data enabled ability to change course and flight. The Navy’s SM-6s interceptor has an active seeker so it can respond to incoming pings and adjust to moving ships while in flight as well. So the technology is there. The challenge is can you get that to hypersonic speeds, obviously that’s an area of of huge focus, but that is by no means beyond the realm of possible
