Hypersonic speed** refers to missiles or aircraft that can fly at speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound, and they have the advantages of strong penetration ability, short reaction time, and high strike accuracy, and are considered to be the winning weapon of future wars. However, the United States has encountered many difficulties in this area, not only lagging behind its two rivals, China and Russia, but also finding it difficult to succeed in its own projects.
Recently, the U.S. Air Force re-attempted AGM-183A "Air-Launched Rapid Response" ARRW), one of the most important hypersonic projects in the United States at the moment, designed to mount a hypersonic gliding warhead on a rocket booster, launched by a B-52 bomber, capable of delivering rapid strikes against important enemy targets. However, this test launch ended in failure, and the missile did not successfully separate from the bomber and had to return to the base randomly.
This is not the first time that the American hypersonic ** project has failed, since 2017, the United States has conducted several tests of hypersonic **, but almost not a single one has been completely successful, either the missile launch failed, or the flight was abnormal, or data was lost. The US side did not admit defeat in this regard, but only said that it had obtained "valuable data" and continued to invest huge amounts of money and manpower in trying to catch up with China and Russia.
The reason why the United States is so anxious is that China and Russia have made significant progress in the field of hypersonic **, not only have mature technologies and products, but also continue to innovate and break through. According to reports, China recently successfully tested a new type of hypersonic missile, which is based on the DF-26 medium-range ballistic missile, which can carry a special waverider warhead, glide in the atmosphere at hypersonic speed, has extremely high maneuverability and stealth, and can effectively evade the enemy's anti-missile system and carry out precision strikes on targets at long distances. With a range of up to 5,000-8,000 kilometers and a hit accuracy of only 3 meters, this missile is known as the "** Express" and is a powerful deterrent to US military deployments in the western Pacific.
Not to be outdone, Russia has developed a variety of hypersonic **, including the "Dagger" hypersonic air-launched missile, the "Avangard" hypersonic gliding warhead, the "Zircons" hypersonic cruise missile, etc., all of which have entered actual combat deployment or are about to be deployed, capable of carrying out rapid strikes on targets in Europe and North America, making the US anti-missile system ineffective.
The hypersonic speed of China and Russia has undoubtedly brought tremendous pressure and challenges to the United States, which has to speed up its own research and development progress in an attempt to narrow the gap and even surpass its opponents. However, the dilemma of the United States in the field of hypersonic ** did not form overnight, but has deep historical and technical reasons.
First of all, American research in the field of hypersonic ** started late and lacked continuity and unity. Although the United States began the exploration of hypersonic technology as early as the sixties of the last century, due to the strategic relaxation after the end of the Cold War, as well as the complexity and high risk of hypersonic technology, American research has not formed a scale and system, but has carried out some projects and experiments sporadically, lacking long-term planning and investment. It is only in recent years that the United States has not realized the threat of China and Russia, and has begun to increase its efforts to promote a number of hypersonic ** projects, but due to the lack of a mature technical foundation and experience accumulation, the progress of the United States has not been smooth, but there have been frequent failures and setbacks.
Secondly, the United States' research in the field of hypersonic ** is subject to its own technological bottlenecks and constraints. The development of hypersonic speed involves technical problems in many fields, such as high-temperature materials, high-speed propulsion, high-precision guidance, efficient communication, etc., all of which need to break through the traditional physical limits and carry out innovation and breakthroughs. Although the United States has certain advantages in some aspects, there are also obvious deficiencies in other aspects, such as the launch platform of hypersonic **, warhead separation mechanism, flight stability, etc., which have restricted the performance and reliability of the hypersonic ** of the United States, resulting in the failure and delay of the test.
Finally, American research in the field of hypersonic ** faces strong competition and confrontation from China and Russia. The development of China and Russia in the field of hypersonic ** is not only to improve their national defense and security capabilities, but also to counter the strategic pressure and interference of the United States, therefore, China and Russia will not easily give up their advantages, but will continue to strengthen their own research and development and deployment, as well as conduct actual combat exercises and demonstrations, put pressure and provocation on the United States, forcing the United States to follow up, thus falling into a hypersonic ** arms race, consuming their own resources and energy.
To sum up, the embarrassment of the United States in the field of hypersonic ** is caused by many reasons, and it cannot be solved by one thing at a time, and the United States needs to pay more efforts and costs if it wants to make a breakthrough in this field, and at the same time, it also has to face strong counterattacks and challenges from China and Russia, which is a difficult task for the United States.