Arms race

How the U.S. Is Quietly Winning the Hypersonic Arms Race

The U.S. Navy since 2012 has been developing its own railgun, but as of early 2019 the weapon had yet to go to sea. That doesn't mean the Americans weren't working on super-fast weapons, however.

Pentagon officials in early January leaked news of the U.S. Navy's own hypersonics test, this one involving a Navy warship firing hypersonic shells during a summer 2018 war game near Hawaii. The Pentagon's secretive Strategic Capabilities Office helped to oversee the trial.

In the test, the destroyer USS Dewey fired 20 of the hypervelocity projectiles from its standard, five-inch-diameter gunpowder cannon, officials told the website of the U.S. Naval Institute.

The new projectile is more aerodynamic than old-style shells and features tiny fins and a radar guidance system that helps it to hone in on a target at speeds as fast as seven times the speed of sound. That’s roughly three times the velocity a normal naval shell can achieve.

Far-flying and accurate, the shells in theory can target ships, ground targets, aircraft and even incoming missiles.