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US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia:
US tested hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet to avoid escalating tensions with Russia
The Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast, the official said, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above.
The official offered scant details of the missile test, only noting the missile flew above 65,000 feet and for more than 300 miles. But even at the lower end of hypersonic range -- about 3,800 miles per hour -- a flight of 300 miles is less than 5 minutes.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:23PM (3 children)
Sure thing, suuuurrreee... I mean, of course you'd keep this quiet! Definitely in a scenario where signaling to an adversary that you could hit them with something if they even think of winking at you oddly, is where you totally, definitely keep having this capability on the down low.
We definitely, pinky swear, have this kinda capability too. I mean, look at the track record of our defense contractors: they always over-deliver on-time and under budget. How could we possibly not have this capability. And here's an artist's concept of this thing totally definitely happening, look, fancy! We are totally not behind in tech on this!
No way is the US a rapidly-declining-into-third-world-and-actually-wasteland shithole country, definitely not! No sireee.
All this money that we sink into the bottomless pit that is defense and what do we get in return? FUCK ALL.
Oh wait no, we get dead brown kids too whose relatives now want to harm us! Great Job y'all! Wonderful way of keeping us 'safe'.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 06 2022, @04:34PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @11:42PM (1 child)
To make it more believable. Duh.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday April 06 2022, @11:44PM