The United States intends to intensify the development and testing of hypersonic weapons due to the lag from Russia and China. This is reported by CNN with reference to the director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems program, Vice Admiral Johnny Wolf.
“Up until just recently, there hasn’t been a real driver for us to take that technology and put it into a weapon system. The need was not there,” Wolf said. “The need is now there, which is why we’ve got a sense of urgency to get after this.”
According to him, «China and Russia are the driver“.
The Vice Admiral admitted that Russia and China have weapons that the US military does not have.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Pentagon has requested $4.7 billion for hypersonic research in the next fiscal year. In the last fiscal year, this amount was $3.8 billion. The US military plans to adopt long-range hypersonic weapons as early as 2023.