(NewsGlobal.com)- In conjunction with Australia and the United Kingdom, the United States announced earlier this week that it will start work on developing hypersonic missiles.
The joint effort is being conducted under a new security alliance that was created recently called AUKUS.
This move is being made as the U.S. and many of its biggest allies continue to grow concerned about China increasing its military assertiveness over in the Pacific.
The plan to develop the hypersonic missiles was announced jointly by Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the UK; Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia; and U.S. President Joe Biden. It was done after the group held a recent check-in on the ongoing progress of the AUKUS group.
The group was launched back in September to focus on Indo-Pacific areas of concern.
In a joint statement the three countries’ leaders released, they said they’re “committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen cooperation on defense innovation.”
Hypersonic missiles are considered way too fat to be able to be intercepted by any missile defense system that is currently being used by any country. As a result, Russia, China and the U.S. have all been pumping funding into developing these weapons.
Back in October, General Mark Milley, who serves as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said China had already conducted a test of their own hypersonic weapon system. That was part of the Communist country’s efforts to continue advancing military and space technologies.
The general said this test by China was a “very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system, and it is very concerning.”
The top commander serving in Europe for the U.S. has also said that Russia has used these hypersonic missiles “multiple” times during their invasion of Ukraine.
Russia starting building up its supply of these hypersonic missiles last fall, as their president, Vladimir Putin, urged all arms manufacturers in the country to start developing more of them. He did this as Russia began building up their military presence on the border of Ukraine, and Putin saw the hypersonic missiles as essential if the country wanted to maintain any sort of edge it had in military technology.
According to the Russian military, its Avangard system can fly up to 27 times faster than the speed of sound. While traveling at those speeds, their military also says the missiles can make sharp maneuvers as it works to evade missile shields set up by any of their enemies.
The first missile that was armed with the Avangard technology was put into active duty back in December of 2019. It was fitted into existing intercontinental ballistic missiles developed during the Soviet Union.
Russian officials have also said they have developed what they’re calling the Kinzhal, which has a range of roughly 1,250 miles and is able to fly at 10 times the speed of sound.
To counteract that, the Pentagon has requested $4.7 billion to research and develop hypersonic weapons for the U.S.
