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US advances toward China in hypersonic weapons race

The U.S. military has completed successful test flights of a reusable hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft, its first such accomplishment in more than a half century. The win is a sign of the Pentagon's progress in a wartime technology race in which China has a sizable lead . Two startups conducted the test flights of a vessel called the Talon-A: Stratolaunch, the company making the hypersonic test aircraft and based in the Mojave Desert, and Ursa Major, a Colorado-based builder of liquid rocket engines. The fully autonomous flights occurred in December and March, the Defense Department said on Monday, and exceeded five times the speed of sound—the generally accepted designation of hypersonic speed. The test flights provide one of the starkest examples yet of how venture- and private-equity-backed tech firms are providing the Defense Department with a long overdue boost. The U.S. has invested billions of dollars to develop hypersonic capabilities for several decades, but has made progress in fits and starts. Hypersonic weapons reach at least 3,800 mph. The components on board must be able to withstand not only the speed, but also temperatures of many thousands of degrees, and lots of maneuvering designed to trick the enemy and evade air-defense systems. Frequent, cost-effective testing is crucial for the U.S. military, and a reusable vehicle makes that possible. Stratolaunch's air-launch platform takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port carrying the small Talon-A rocket-powered aircraft. The U.S. military hasn't flown a reusable hypersonic-speed aircraft since 1968. That is when it shuttered the X-15 program , a superfast human-piloted aircraft lauded as a gold standard for experimental programs. 'The history of hypersonics is full of examples of successful programs that we have shut down prematurely, usually because of money," said Mark J. Lewis, president and chief executive officer of the Purdue Applied Research Institute and formerly a senior Defense Department official working on hypersonics. As the Pentagon dawdled, China plowed ahead, building some of the most state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles. Russia has claimed it has its own superfast nuclear-capable weapons. In the decades since the X-15, the U.S. continued testing hypersonic weaponry in wind tunnels, but tests had diminished over time. China conducts hypersonic test flights at about 10 times the rate the U.S. does, says Lewis. The Pentagon, under pressure from Congress to make better progress on hypersonic weapons, is leaning on startups to try and close the testing gap. Stratolaunch and Ursa Major conducted the test flights from the Mojave Desert, carrying the vessel up to high altitude in a much larger plane before launching it. The Talon-A makes its first autonomous landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Talon-A was strapped with radar, antennas, sensors or other communications systems the Defense Department wants to ensure will work in hypersonic conditions, said Zachary Krevor, Stratolaunch's CEO. 'You collect a treasure trove of data. That's what these tests are about," Krevor said. The Pentagon wants hypersonic missiles, and test vehicles like the Talon-A allow it to develop and refine weapons. The aircraft landed at a Space Force base on the central California coast. Krevor declined to say exactly how far and fast it flew. Stratolaunch and Ursa Major are part of a richly funded sector of startups building hypersonic-speed weapons and aircraft. As national-security-aligned tech sectors become more popular for investors, money has flowed to these companies . Brad Appel, Ursa Major's chief technology officer, likens the change in hypersonics to what SpaceX did for rocket launches, making them cheaper and more widely available. Startups 'don't require decades of institutional studies," he said. 'We just get out there and test." The company, which has raised $280 million in venture capital, has contracts with the Air Force and Navy. Stratolaunch is owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, whose former co-CEO, Stephen Feinberg, was confirmed in March as the deputy secretary of defense.