La corsa ai veicoli ipersonici ...
"The Great Hypersonic Race" ...
The US is behind in hypersonics technology, the result of not rapidly following up on prior successes, being risk-phobic, and being wildly outspent by China.
The new National Defense Strategy, however, demands that the US face the reality of "great power competition" and regain the lead in hypersonics, which Pentagon research and engineering chief Mike Griffin has pegged as his No. 1 priority.
Griffin notes that hypersonic missiles are tactical systems with strategic effects.
Funding is ramping up, as are a number of programs with the Air Force, DARPA, and the other military services, and Griffin is rationalizing those efforts under a single hypersonics roadmap to expedite success and avoid unnecessary duplication.
Read John A. Tirpak’s feature from the August issue of Air Force Magazine.