DARPA tests advanced hypersonic weapon prototype, makes railgun sweat

The US Army completed testing of its hypersonic weapon yesterday, launching a test projectile across the Pacific Ocean. The glider flies at a lower trajectory than typical missiles, traveling at several times the speed of sound, making it capable of hitting anywhere on this peaceful ball of blue and green within an hour. We saw DARPA's hypersonic aircraft's successful launch earlier this year -- the Falcon HTV-2 (pictured above) managed to hit the dizzying speed of Mach 20 during its tests, before it crashed. Despite recent military funding issues in the US government, hopefully all things hypersonic will get to fly again soon.

DARPA tests advanced hypersonic weapon prototype, makes railgun sweat originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.