The US military is afraid of the development of hypersonic weapons technologies in Russia and China and insists on increasing funding for the development of a new class of weapons. This is reported by the National Interest.
According to the publication, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Michael Griffin, speaking with a report to Congress, spoke about the potential risk in "harsh terms".
"The US does not have systems that could keep China and Russia at risk in an appropriate way, and we do not have protection against their systems," a Pentagon spokesman said.
Although in the United States, against the background of the increased potential of Russia and China, they have increased funding for the creation of hypersonic weapons, but American analysts still disagree about the importance of hypersonic weapons. At the same time, Moscow and Beijing are betting on hypersound with an emphasis on nuclear weapons, while the United States is planning the tactical use of hypersonic missiles.
"The Ministry of Defense is also considering options for hypersonic missile defense, but these proposals are still in their infancy," the publication says.
Due to the uncertainty in the tasks, the Pentagon faced problems when creating hypersonic weapons.
At the same time, the US is testing the AGM-183A hypersonic air-launched missile, which Donald Trump called a "super-duper missile". Planned in April, the first combat launch of the prototype failed due to unnamed problems with the B-52H bomber.
It should be noted that Russia became the first country to decide to place hypersonic missiles "Zircon" on submarines. Since the missiles are launched from an underwater position, the submarines can approach as close to the object as possible, which further reduces the time for a retaliatory strike.
Nikolay Grishchenko