The Air Force successfully tested a hypersonic weapon over the weekend, officials said in a statement. The team released an air-launched Rapid Response Weapon off of the Southern California coast on Saturday whose “booster ignited and burned for the expected duration, achieving hypersonic speeds five times greater than the speed of sound,” according to an Air Force report. Saturday’s success marks the first successful air-launched hypersonic weapon and is described by Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, Air Force program executive officer for weapons, as a “major accomplishment”; the Air Force tried to test the missile in April, but it failed to launch. The weapon is designed to destroy time-sensitive targets in a contested environment and would, the report says, “expand precision-strike capabilities.” As The Hill reported, the U.S. is working quickly to develop hypersonic weapons to counter weapons advancements by Russia and China.
