The weapons could be in production by 2030, the British Defense Ministry has said
UK scientists have collaborated with the US and private firms to successfully test hypersonic missile propulsion, the British Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Hypersonic missiles are projectiles that can travel at speeds at least five times the speed of sound, velocities that make them either extremely difficult or impossible to intercept using modern air defenses. Russia has introduced and deployed its own missiles of this kind during the Ukraine conflict.
Successful tests of the prototype cruise missile engine will aid in arming the UK with hypersonic weapons by 2030, the ministry said.
A joint team led by the UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), collaborating with the US Air Force Research Laboratory and companies in the industry, have run 233 tests of the new high-speed air-breathing engine. Once completed, the propulsion system could see missiles traveling at several thousand miles per hour.
”We are living in a more dangerous world and it has never been more important for us to innovate and stay ahead of our adversaries,” UK Defense Secretary John Healey said in the statement.
The test was part of the AUKUS military bloc’s hypersonic weapons research program, according to Dstl CEO Paul Hollinshead. The bloc encompasses the US, the UK, and Australia.
Last December, Washington touted a successful test of its domestic Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, developed by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
China, India, Iran, and North Korea have touted their own hypersonic weapons tests over the last several years. Tehran used its hypersonic Fattah-1 missile in its exchange of attacks with Israel last year, according to Iran.
Moscow and Beijing have pulled ahead in the race to develop hypersonic weapons over the last decade. Russia put its first armament of the kind, the air-launched Kinzhal, into service in 2017, while China rolled out its DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle two years later.
Russia has used Kinzhal and naval Zircon hypersonic missiles throughout the Ukraine conflict. Last November, Moscow carried out the first combat test of its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, striking Ukraine’s Yuzhmash military industrial facility in Dnepr.
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