The Russian military claimed to have successfully tested another hypersonic missile test as militaries worldwide race to develop and perfect the sophisticated weaponry.
The frigate of the Northern Fleet Admiral Gorshkov fired the Zircon missile in the White Sea and hit a naval target more than 400 kilometers away, the defense ministry said in a statement on Monday.
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The test was “recognized as successful,” and the “target was hit,” according to “objective control data,” per the ministry. This comes after the group said it carried out a successful test two weeks ago.
China and the United States are heavily involved in a contest to develop improved hypersonic missile technology. While the technology itself is decades old, the newest improvements provide additional stealth that makes it harder for them to be intercepted.
The newest iteration of hypersonic missiles no longer sends them on a ballistic trajectory, instead traveling on a glide vehicle that allows it to fly at lower altitudes and have additional maneuverability.
Over the summer, China tested a missile that “went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided back to China, that impacted a target,” said Gen. John Hyten, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In the days before his retirement, he acknowledged the Chinese military has conducted “hundreds” of hypersonic tests in the last five years, while the U.S. conducted only nine.
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“That was a system that traveled at extraordinary rates of speed that no defensive systems are capable of dealing with,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently said of China’s test.
The U.S. is still a “year or two” away from fielding its own hypersonic weapon, said Gillian Bussey, director of the Department of Defense’s Joint Hypersonics Transition office, earlier this month. The Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon will be the first U.S. hypersonic system “that was actually be deployed and … ready for use,” while the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike System is not far behind, according to Bussey.
