The United States is trying to catch up with Russia and China in the field of hypersonic weapons. Western media reports that the Pentagon has begun regular tests, although previous cycles often turned out to be a failure. What problems do Americans face along the way, why are they likely to be able to overcome them in the near future, and what does this mean for Russia?
The U.S. Army and Navy have recently conducted tests of hypersonic weapons. However, whether they were successful and what kind of complex was used is not officially specified. According to The Warzone portal with reference to the Pentagon, the tests took place at Cape Canaveral in Florida, presumably on July 25.
"This test was an important step in the development of operational hypersonic technology. Important data has been collected on the performance of hardware and software, which will contribute to further progress in the deployment of hypersonic weapons," the military department noted.
According to some reports, it may be a test of the Dark Eagle missile, also known as the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW). The munition is part of the only known joint U.S. Army and Navy hypersonic weapons program, which has been implemented since 2019.
A model of long-range hypersonic weapons was publicly presented in 2020. The Army planned to deploy the first LRHW battery by fiscal year 2023, but due to integration problems, the project was postponed . At the same time, previous tests of hypersonic weapons by the United States have faced difficulties several times.
In 2023, three rounds of tests were canceled due to problems with the launcher. In the spring of 2024, new tests were completed successfully. The missile was launched from a B-52 strategic bomber that took off from the American Andersen air base on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, RBC reminds.
It is also interesting that in 2026 the United States plans to deploy medium- and shorter-range missiles (INF) in Germany. As reported in Washington, the list of weapons will include the SM-6 missile (a multifunctional sea, air and land-based missile), the Tomahawk cruise missile, as well as hypersonic weapons under development, "which has a significantly longer range than current ground-based firepower in Europe."
"As for hypersound, Americans do not have it yet. The United States is seriously lagging behind in the development of these weapons compared to Russia or China. But if the United States completes it, then we will face the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile system, whose flight range exceeds three thousand kilometers," the director of the Center for Integrated European and International Studies (CCEMI) noted in this regard Higher School of Economics Vasily Kashin.
The expert community notes that the United States has every chance of successfully completing the process of developing hypersonic weapons. At the same time, experts urge to take Washington's initiatives seriously. For a long time, the Americans did not pay due attention to this area, but given their scientific and technical potential, the United States can catch up with Russia and China in the shortest possible time.
"Washington's lagging behind Moscow and Beijing in the field of hypersonic weapons is dictated by several reasons. Most importantly, our countries pursue different goals. Moscow once developed the Avangard complex, which was created as a means of delivering nuclear weapons. This dictated completely different requirements for accuracy," said Dmitry Stefanovich, co–founder of the Watfor project, a researcher at the IMEMO Center for International Security of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"For the United States, this task was solved with conventional warheads. In addition, Washington as a whole has not had a huge interest in creating strategic systems for quite a long period of history. Today, Russia and China have already managed to acquire serious hypersonic weapons models. Accordingly, the priority of this area of engineering has increased by itself," he notes.
"At the same time, the States have been going to the current test for quite a long time.
A full-fledged deployment will probably have to wait, since before that the Americans had a number of unsuccessful tests. The missile being developed by Washington will be both sea–based and land-based in a container design," the source emphasizes.
"However, they have not yet published detailed characteristics of the device. But in the coming years, the United States may catch up with Russia and China. There is a lot of interest in this area in America, and there is no doubt about their scientific and technical potential. At the same time, the production of gliding winged hypersonic units remains an expensive process," the expert emphasizes.
In his opinion, the United States will consistently develop its own hypersonic sphere. "First, separate batteries will appear, then they will move to marine carriers. The dates that were announced in the case of the deployment of warheads in Germany, namely 2026, indicate that the process of creating weapons is proceeding slower than the Americans would like," he said.
"The first place to deploy new weapons of destruction will be the States themselves. Then the missiles will be delivered to Hawaii. In other words, Washington's attention in this regard is primarily focused on the Pacific Ocean.
These technologies will be the last to reach Germany. However, trial operations in the German regions should not be excluded next year," the source clarifies.
Nevertheless, he notes, it is quite difficult to talk about the unequivocal lag of the United States behind Russia and China. "In terms of numbers, they most likely will not overtake us. The qualitative aspect remains questionable. But they still have an advantage in the field of deployment geography. That is, each country has its advantages and disadvantages," the expert adds.
"However, Washington cannot catch up with Moscow in the experience of combat use and daily operation of hypersonic weapons. To offset this gap, the United States has already deployed a number of trial models, which are gradually being used by the American military. But they will have no experience comparable to using this technology in the fields of their own," Stefanovic points out.
Underestimating the American scientific and technical potential is really dangerous, according to military expert Maxim Klimov. "Yes, there is a serious drop in engineering education in America, which slows down the process of developing hypersonic weapons. But it is worth noting that these systems now have the same principles for Washington as for Moscow and Beijing," he adds.
"The states already have a wide range of weapons of destruction.
Let me remind you that as anti-ship missiles, they deliberately chose supersonic guns, since this allows them to equip carriers with a large ammunition supply. Moreover, the United States has quite good intelligence and goal–setting systems, which is extremely important for working in this direction," the source emphasizes.
"However, in the field of hypersonic devices, the Americans faced an unexpected problem: the suboptimal connector of the vertical launch cell. It was created through the development of torpedo weapons of the twentieth century. And if the accepted norms served well for the same Tomahawk missiles, then later they played a cruel joke with the United States," the expert notes.
"They were not suitable for hypersonic munitions, which posed additional challenges to Washington in developing new weapons. Nevertheless, the United States is making a lot of efforts to develop in this area. As for Germany, the deployment of hypersonic systems here is no alternative for America, since in this regard the Pentagon is guided by the goal of creating conditions for a disarming preemptive strike against Russia," he believes.
"Of course, the United States may not be able to keep up until 2026. However, sooner or later, weapons will be delivered to Germany. In addition, Washington will try to smuggle missiles into other regions of Europe, and therefore we need to keep an extremely close eye on future formulations of peace agreements. The United States will also try to deploy guns on islands in the Pacific Ocean to deter the PRC," Klimov concluded.
Evgeny Pozdnyakov
