The United States and Australia have secretly tested hypersonic missiles that fly at more than 4,000mph, Australia’s defence minister has revealed.
Considered the weapon of the near-future, the missiles are known as hypersonic glide vehicles. Their aerodynamics allow the winged craft to fly in a smooth, flat trajectory after being launched by missile, making detection difficult so that there is little or no warning of their rapid approach.
The latest round of tests finished last week and were a joint collaboration involving the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Australian defence scientists.
The tests were conducted deep in the outback at the world’s largest instrumented weapons range. The secretive Woomera Test Range, operated by the Australian Defence Force, covers an area roughly one and half times the size of Scotland.
Marise Payne, the Australian defence minister, said the success of the latest tests “takes us one step closer to the realisation of hypersonic flight”.
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“Hypersonic flight is more than five times the speed of sound and has the potential to revolutionise air travel, making it faster and cheaper to travel around the world and into space,” she said.
“There are key military applications of this technology and by understanding hypersonic flight, the Australian Defence Force will be in a better position to respond to future threats.”
The announcement from the minister comes as both China and Russia ramp their own hypersonic flight testing programmes – developments that worry US military planners.
US Navy Admiral Harry Harris, head of US Pacific Command, told a Congress hearing in May: "I'm concerned about Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons development, and I expressed those concerns in the right places. What we can do is to develop our own hypersonic weapons and improve our defences against theirs."
The Washington Examiner reported last month that the US was scrambling to build an aircraft capable of hypersonic flight. It said Lockheed Martin was working on an unmanned version of the legendary SR-71 Blackbird aircraft which would fly at speeds up to Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound, and could be operational by 2030.
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“The idea is that the SR-72, dubbed ‘Son of Blackbird’, would fly so fast that an adversary would have no time to react or hide,” the Washington Examiner said.
Current designs have used rocket boosters to get the hypersonic test projectiles up to speed, before a high-speed jet engine takes over. Hypersonic vehicles may also have the ability to change direction in flight, making interception more difficult.
Ms Payne said Australia and the United States were now working on plans for the next phase of hypervelocity flight experiments.