“I don’t want to get into any specifics,” Mike White told me, “but some of the challenges we’ve had so far getting to flight have been, in certain instances, avoidable.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.GAO notes that efforts to defend against Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles are much less mature than offensive efforts, with much less funding. Only 12 of 70 projects tracked by GAO related to defenses; DoD requested $207 million in 2021 for hypersonic defense, up from $157 million in 2020.
By Theresa Hitchens“In some ways, it’s too early to say ‘game changer,’ or ‘nothing.’ And I would say, just to put it starkly, each of those positions is probably likely to be untrue or inaccurate,” CSBA’s Tom Mahnken says.
By Theresa HitchensDefense experts and the Pentagon’s hypersonics R&D director told us the Union of Concerned Scientists study, which argues hypersonic weapons offer marginal improvements over existing weapons at an outsized cost, got something wrong at every step.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Independent experts and the Pentagon’s hypersonics R&D director tell us a study of hypersonics by the Union of Concerned Scientists overlooks the very real advantages the new weapons offer the US – and its adversaries.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Let a hundred hypersonic flowers bloom, Pentagon officials say, instead of a single cumbersome mega-program.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.