China ahead of US in hypersonic weapons development, tests, resources: Reports
Feb 04, 2022
Washington [US], February 5 : The US lags behind China in hypersonic weapons development, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told more than 24 CEOs of the country's biggest defence contractors and several of them responded that a shortage of wind tunnels to conduct tests was a major bottleneck in the program, reported Sputnik.
China had around 12 wind tunnels to conduct hypersonic testing and was already at work constructing additional ones at a rate of one every six months, the defence industry chiefs present told Austin at the meeting on Thursday.
The meeting was chaired by US Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks and was attended by top executives from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Leidos, Aerojet Rocketdyne, BAE Systems, L3Harris and other major US contractors.
According to Sputnik, the US program was also hamstrung by a fear of failure in making technological advances in both the government and armed forces and in private industry, the report said. The Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) budget includes USD 3.8 billion for hypersonic research, up from USD 3.2 billion in Fiscal Year 2021.
In October 2021, a hypersonic glide body test failed due to a rocket engine failure and in April 2021, a hypersonic missile failed to separate from a B-52H bomber in a test at Edwards Air Force Base in California, reported Sputnik.
