FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
U.S. Trying To Mobilize Its Own Hypersonic Weapons Programs
Dec. 30, 2018 (EIRNS )—The U.S. Department of Defense is trying hard to mobilize its resources and those of the defense industry in order to catch up to Russia in the development of hypersonic weapons. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has put out a plan that includes making the Navy’s intention to “develop and field an offensive hypersonic weapon by 2025” a top priority, Military.com reported on Dec. 28. The Air Force also has put a priority on hypersonics, reflecting the increasing concerns of the Pentagon that Russia and China have taken the lead on a technology that potentially poses the threat of making existing missile defense systems obsolete, the Military.com report continues. In April, the Air Force awarded a contract to develop a prototype hypersonic cruise missile, or the Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon.
Richardson included hypersonic weapons development in his “Design 2.0” plan, which is intended to “guide our behaviors and investments this year and in the years to come.” He said that specifics “will be reflected in our annual budget documents.” According to Military.com, the plan “reflects the concerns” expressed in the 2018 National Defense Strategy in stating that “China and Russia are deploying all elements of their national power to achieve their global ambitions.”
As for why the Pentagon has not fielded any hypersonic weapons so far, while Russia has fielded at least two, VOA reports that a Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, expressed it this way in the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin presiding over a test of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle on Dec. 26: “While the United States has been the world leader in hypersonic system research for many decades, we did not choose to weaponize it.” She said further that the United States was considering “options” to answer the new weapons. But the Russian hypersonic weapons program is, in fact, a response to the “imbalance” created by the George W. Bush Administration in 2002 when it decided to withdraw from the ABM Treaty.
