Navy Tests Hypersonic Weapons That Could Hit Anywhere on Earth in an Hour

[Onkel Neal]

Navy Tests Hypersonic Weapons That Could Hit Anywhere on Earth in an Hour

The U.S. Navy is testing technology that could deliver a conventional warhead anywhere on Earth in as little as an hour. As first reported by US Naval Institute News, the Navy performed a flight test last week featuring Prompt Global Strike, a hypersonic weapon system designed to give the U.S. the ability to quickly strike targets worldwide with almost no notice.

Interest in very long range precision-guided weapons surfaced in 2001, when the George W. Bush Administration expressed interest in "offensive strike" weapons. The idea was to field a ballistic missile or some other kind of high-speed long-range missile with a conventional, high explosive warhead. This way, the U.S. could hit targets virtually anywhere based on time-sensitive information in situations where aircraft carriers, bombers, and other U.S. assets could not respond in time.