US tests hypersonic missile: sources

Uvalde and Highland Park mass shootings survivors, families and supporters rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, calling for stricter gun controls yesterday. (AFP)

The US Air Force successfully tested a Lockheed Martin Corp hypersonic missile this week, sources familiar with the efforts said yesterday, amid growing concerns Russia and China have had more success developing their own hypersonic weapons.The US Air Force successfully tested its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) booster on Tuesday off the California coast, according to the sources. The ARRW is carried aloft under the wing of plane before it is launched toward its target. In previous tests, the weapon did not detach from the plane.Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200km per hour. In a separate successful hypersonic weapon test recently, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrated its Operational Fires programme, two people familiar with the matter said.The successful tests show progress among the myriad US hypersonic weapons development efforts, which have in cases been beleaguered by failed tests, growing questions about cost and increasing concerns the United States is falling behind in what has become a superpower arms race.Operational Fires is a ground-launched system that will “rapidly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defences.”