Weapons companies from the West are trying to devise a defense against Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic missiles could give China a decisive military advantage and Russia. Andy Thomis, head of defense company Cohort, said his company is working on a project to defeat the weapons.
Hypersonic missiles can travel five times faster than the speed of sound and are currently extremely difficult to shoot down.
Thomis, whose UK-based company supplies kit for Royal Navy submarines, spoke to The Daily Telegraph and said: “It is a very important step forward to develop convincing countermeasures against them.
“It’s a real challenge.
“There’s no doubt about that.”
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This attempt by the US to catch up with Russian efforts is capable of speeds greater than five times the speed of sound.
This makes the missile system the third successful test of that class of weapons since 2013.
Hypersonic air-breathing rockets use air captured from the atmosphere to achieve sustained propulsion.
Several types of hypersonic propulsion also work in the vacuum of space.
The Pentagon said in a statement Monday that the development program for the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) is being led by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.