US tests hypersonic missile

The US Air Force has tested a hypersonic cruise missile in the Pacific for the first time.

According to analysts, it is a signal to China that Washington still competes in a weapons arena where many perceive Beijing to have a distinct advantage.

On March 17, a B-52 bomber flying out of Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam fired “a full prototype operational hypersonic missile,” an Air Force spokesperson confirmed in a statement to CNN.

The test of the hypersonic weapon, officially called the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), was conducted at the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, almost 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) to the east of Guam, the statement said.

Previous ARRW tests have been conducted off the US mainland.

The ARRW consists of a rocket booster motor and the hypersonic glide vehicle, which carries a conventional warhead.

It is “intended to attack high-value, time-sensitive, land-based targets,” a 2021 Defense Department document says.

Hypersonic glide vehicles travel at speeds greater than Mach 5, or approximately 4,000 miles per hour, making them difficult to detect and intercept in time. They can also maneuver and vary altitude, allowing them to evade current missile defense systems.

US officials have previously acknowledged that China and Russia have pulled ahead in the development of hypersonics.

(With inputs from CNN)