The missile–defense systems that have been guarding the United States against ballistic missile attacks for decades are in danger of becoming obsolete in the face of recent Chinese testing of “hypersonic” vehicles that could speed missiles right past them. But the Department of Defense (DoD) and private aerospace firm Stratolaunch are addressing the issue head-on: This month, Stratolaunch and DoD’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced that they have signed a new research contract to work together to bring U.S. missile-defense systems up to speed.
Under this contract, Stratolaunch will make fast-moving targets that simulate incoming hypersonic missiles. The MDA will use the targets to test missile-defense systems and assess the systems’ ability to strike targets down in time.
“We’re excited to provide MDA with a threat-representative and threat-replicating target that allows them to understand how to engage and intercept hypersonic threats,” said Dr. Daniel Millman, Chief Technology Officer of Stratolaunch, in a press release.
A vehicle is “hypersonic” if it flies at Mach 5–five times the speed of sound–or higher. That’s pretty fast: The F-15EX, the United States’ newest fighter jet and currently the fastest fighter jet on Earth, has a top speed of 1,875 miles per hour, or Mach 2.5.
A Fast-moving Future Threat
There are no hypersonic aircraft in active service yet, but China’s air force may have them soon. In August, China launched a rocket into space carrying a hypersonic “glide” vehicle with a nuclear-capable missile. Once in orbit, the glide vehicle detached from the rocket, flew completely around the globe, and then glided down through the atmosphere toward a designated target, missing it by only 24 miles.
Today’s ballistic missiles can fly at Mach 5 or even faster. But because they follow straight, predictable trajectories, today’s missile-defense systems can track them and strike them down.
Hypersonic vehicles, on the other hand, don’t follow fixed flight paths. Human operators using computerized precision can make the vehicles drop to low altitudes, swerve right or left, or go in long, sweeping arcs instead of straight lines; all of which would throw our missile-defense systems off and make it nearly impossible for them to intercept one of these vehicles in time.
And time, with vehicles or missiles flying at these speeds, is very short: A hypersonic missile launching from China could hit the U.S. mainland in 100 minutes or less.
Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went so far as to say that a hypersonic glide vehicle carrying a nuclear warhead would “negate” U.S. missile defenses altogether.
And China isn’t the only potential hypersonic-wielding adversary we could face. Russia and North Korea are pursuing Mach-5-plus aircraft and weapons, too.
U.S. Military Struggles to Keep Up
The U.S. Space Force hopes its satellites will help watch for hypersonic threats. In June, it announced that it has assigned contractors Raytheon and Millennium Space Systems to build sensors that will enable satellites to track high-velocity missiles from Earth orbit.
Meanwhile, Stratolaunch is working on a hypersonic glide vehicle for U.S. forces, the Talon-A. The vehicle, which is remote-controlled and pilotless, measures 38 feet long and could take off from the body of a cargo plane but has landing gear for ground runway liftoffs and landings, as well. It’s still under development, though, and won’t make its first test flight until sometime next year.
Other recent U.S. tests of hypersonic tech have not fared well. The U.S. Air Force conducted two tests–in April and August–of a prototype AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, a hypersonic missile that is supposed to deploy from a B-52H Stratofortress bomber. The weapon could not deploy from the airplane at all in the first test, and it deployed but fell to Earth dead due to engine failure on the second.
Chinese hypersonic weapons fly clear across the globe, while U.S.-built ones can barely even launch. It isn’t hard to see why U.S. defense experts are nervous.
Or why they are taking action to upgrade our defenses. We could feasibly find ourselves in a near future where China has hypersonic weapons ready to fire and we do not. And if we cannot launch a hypersonic attack, the least we can do is make sure we can protect ourselves against one.
