US lays out plans to speed up hypersonic weapons development
Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted that the country possesses hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), DARPA revealed it has plans to ramp up testing its capabilities portfolio.
During a presidential address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow on 1 March, Putin said Russia had developed a hypersonic capability — the RS-28 Sarmat, a weapon capable of striking the US.
Shortly after, speaking at a defence writer’s breakfast, DARPA Director Steven Walker declined to confirm or deny Putin’s claim. Walker, however, dovetailed into US efforts to ramp up development of such weapons under a ‘national hypersonics initiative’.
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