The successful development of a weapon system that can fly at least five times the speed of sound would be a “watershed event” for the Defense Department, according to the Pentagon’s No. 2 research and engineering official.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Al Shaffer said that hypersonic and high-speed weapons would provide access in places where other capabilities could be denied.
The Pentagon is preparing to retest two hypersonic vehicles this summer: the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) and the X-51A Waverider.
Both systems failed to complete their first planned test runs last spring.
“At the end of the day, if we can fly in Mach 6, 7 or 8 with something like a strike missile or a cruise missile then it really doesn’t matter if the adversary sees you or does not see you.
It provides a capability set for those high-value targets that we might need,” Shaffer said during a hypersonics event at Boeing’s Arlington, VA, office.