America Successfully Tested New Hypersonic Missile

America Successfully Tested New Hypersonic Missile. 

The third successful test of that kind of weapon since 2013 was conducted by the United States using an air-breathing hypersonic missile made by Raytheon Technologies Corp., according to a statement released by the Pentagon on Monday.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, oversees the development of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC). For the final contract award, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp. are vying.

Air-breathing vehicles utilize atmospheric air to propel themselves for an extended period. Space’s vacuum allows for the operation of several propulsion technologies.

Since September, there have been four testing of air-breathing hypersonic missiles. While Lockheed had one successful test and one failure, Raytheon’s product was both successful.

“The vehicle flew a trajectory that engineers designed to intentionally stress the weapon concept to explore its limits and further validate digital performance models,” Raytheon said in a statement after releasing HAWC from an aircraft and accelerating to hypersonic speeds using the scramjet engine.

This achievement represents the third successful test in a series involving hypersonic weapons from several US research projects.

The Common Hypersonic Glide Body, a novel kind of hypersonic missile, was tested unsuccessfully on June 29 at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.