Patrick Shanahan, deputy secretary of defense, recently said that the U.S. military will be pursuing hypersonic weapons as a joint effort between service branches, adding that development initiatives would be in line with future funding requests, CNBC reported Wednesday.
“Part of what we are doing is figuring out how many do we need, how do we make this more modular, and how do we stand up the industrial base that goes along with this,†Shanahan said while making assurances that the U.S. will operate hypersonic weapons “sooner and more often than people have ever expected.â€
Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new hypersonic missile in March, while China announced in August that it had successfully tested a hypersonic aircraft.
Hypersonics, which can travel at a speed of roughly one mile per second, are weapons that the U.S. cannot defend against at present.