The U.S. military may be able to deploy unmanned hypersonic weapons as early as 2025, an official said. The Air Force on May 1 successfully flew the X-51 WaveRider, an experimental “scramjet” made by Boeing Co., reaching up to five times the speed of sound for a record three and a half minutes. The service called […]
Missiles
Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully launched its new rocket as part of a test flight for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The two-stage rocket lifted off at 5 p.m. local time on April 21 from Wallops Island, Virginia. About 10 minutes later, it delivered a dummy payload into orbit. The booster, called Antares, is the […]
The Pentagon’s top intelligence officer declined to answer questions about the revelation last week of a classified report that concluded North Korea may be able to launch a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which authored the classified assessment, appeared at an event hosted by […]
The U.S. Navy is helping Germany arm its fleet with more than 400 anti-ship missile systems. The Navy announced the March 29 $343,550,330 contract award to RAMSYS GmbH, Ottobrunn, Germany for the production of 445 Block 2 MK-44 Mod 4 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Round Pack (GMRP) All-Up-Rounds, according to a Defense Department […]
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is planning another major flight trial involving multiple targets and multiple interceptors to increasingly challenge its young missile defense shield’s ability to handle “raids,” or multiple threats launched simultaneously. The Pentagon’s interceptors downed four of five threats in the first such trial, which took place Oct. 25. MDA officials […]
