Image source: topwar.ru
In American aviation, they complained about "anomalies of flight tests." Interesting wording...
Because of them, according to the US Air Force, the Pentagon had to postpone the hypersonic missile program. Previously, it was assumed that by October 2022, measures for the development of hypersonic missiles to the stage of early combat readiness would be completed.
But as a result of a series of unsuccessful flight tests, the Air Force decided to postpone the implementation of the program for the next fiscal year. At the end of 2022, the following missile tests should be carried out. As stated in the corresponding statement of the American Air Force command, the decision on the production of missiles will depend on situational specifics. We will have to conduct a number of flight tests before making such a decision, according to the US Air Force.
Currently, almost every branch of the US armed forces is developing its own hypersonic systems. For example, the US Navy has its own hypersonic weapons program. The Air Force is exploring the possibility of ARRW and Hypersonic Attack missiles, while simultaneously working with the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency on the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) system. DARPA has its own programs to create hypersonic weapons.
It is possible that the Pentagon is silent about many tests of weapons-grade hypersound in order not to aggravate the existing tensions in relations with Russia. This, by the way, was also reported by CNN. A few days after the Russian Federation used hypersonic missiles "Dagger" in Ukraine, the United States conducted its own tests. The specific results, however, were kept silent.
The US Air Force claims that the ARRW missile created by Lockheed Martin is designed to destroy important and urgent targets on land. American lawmakers, however, are not very happy with the progress of testing and development: congressmen and senators are making claims to the Pentagon that the United States is lagging behind potential opponents in the face of Russia and China in hypersonic weapons. For example, Mike Rogers, representing the Republican Party and elected from Alabama, said that China has more troops, ships and hypersonic missiles than the United States.
A separate situation is failures during tests. ARRW missiles collide with them regularly, and this creates certain obstacles to the implementation of the program. The military believes that weapons should still be worked on before starting their production. And this despite the fact that an impressive budget was allocated for the creation of missiles.
The US defense budget for fiscal year 2023, by the way, requested $7.2 billion for the development of hypersonic weapons. The US Accounting Chamber in its report for 2021 indicated 70 measures for the development and testing of hypersonic weapons, and these measures, according to auditors, will cost the US treasury $ 15 billion in the period from 2015 to 2024.
