Photo: US Air Force / Getty Images
The Army successfully tested a new hypersonic missile prototype that would put the United States on par with other military powers that already have this type of weapons technology.
La Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was responsible for reporting the successful test of the so-called Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).
One of the most important characteristics of this new type of weapon lies in the fact that they are able to change their trajectory in mid-flight to prevent anti-aircraft measures from shooting them down. This was something impossible to do for previous generation missiles which are only capable of maintaining a fixed trajectory.
The missile was launched from a B-bomber aircraft. 52. Once the load was released, the HAWC ignited its thrusters, reaching a speed of Mach 5 in a few seconds, equivalent to more than 6, 52 kilometers per hour.
During its test flight the missile traveled approximately 555 kilometers, that is, almost twice the distance that separates New York and Washington DC.
Due to tensions between the US and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, US defense agencies decided to keep the test secret to prevent this from signaling the start of a military escalation.
Cruise missiles
The HAWC is considered a cruise-type missile since it has a precision system that in Together with its powerful engines allow it to carry out attacks at great distances with precision extremely high.
From what has been disclosed, the engines of This hypersonic missile has air intakes similar to those on jet planes. The development of this class of weapons has become common among the powers since both Russia and China already have this type of missile in their arsenals
.
The most recent proof of the power of these weapons could be seen in Ukraine after the Russian army used one of its hypersonic missiles nicknamed Kinzhal to attack a weapons depot of the Ukrainian forces.
Russia has assured that it has a version of this missile called Avangard that is capable of reaching Mach 27, which means a speed of 33,339.6 kilometers per hour. However, its operating distance is only about 2,000 kilometers.
China, for its part, is the country that is most advanced in the race for hypersonic missiles, since it has already managed to test some prototypes that are capable of giving around the planet.
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