President Biden may be snoozing on the job, but the US Air Force is still wide awake.
They will be testing an ultra-powerful hypersonic missile system later this month. The unusual weapon travels at up to 20 times the speed of sound and is an Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW).
These weapons fly very low in the atmosphere at such a rapid velocity that enemy anti-missile defense can’t respond, allowing it to quickly detonate and wipe out enemy defensive that are high value and pose an immediate threat.
The upcoming ARRW test will check America’s readiness to deploy the devastating weapon.
Still, it’s not very clear why they’re necessary, considering their speed is unlikely to surpass ICBMs.
What are Hypersonic Missiles?
Hypersonic missiles work in two main parts. The rocket portion speeds up way past the speed of sound, streaking way under the altitude of ICBMs and other missiles.
Once it approaches the target zone, the hypersonic weapon (ARRW) deploys a gliding portion that rapidly delivers the payload and destroys the target with devastating force.
Because it flies so low, the ARRW is hard for enemy defenses to detect or shoot down and gets more cover from ground terrain, trees and structures. Missile defense systems work to shoot down missiles high in the atmosphere, making low-flying ARRW’s a nightmare to defend against.
However, many defense experts say that with a bit more research and the right use of satellites, ARRWs could become quite easy to take down, making it unclear why countries are now in an ARRWs race.
Russia declared its own hypersonic weapon development in 2018, saying that their systems would get to a speed of Mach 20, while China also continues to expand its military capability.
It’s worth noting that there’s no treaties limiting the use and development of ARRWs which is part of what makes them so much of a wildcard geopolitically if they were ever used. In addition, they’re still in the testing phase, which is why the USAF is trying out this test.
The Army’s push to develop #hypersonic weapons is an effort to present adversaries with multiple dilemmas and take on the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses role as well as deep strike. https://t.co/4DGq46UAd4
— Geopolitics & Empire (@Geopolitics_Emp) March 14, 2021
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that it makes sense for the US to try to keep up with its adversaries in terms of missile technology, but at the same time America should always ensure it has an ace in the hole.
There’s no reason just to match competitors at their own level. Washington should be developing secret technology that far outpaces Russia and China.
While the military continues to do strange things like go after Fox News host Tucker Carlson and hire “diversity officers” to help ensure the ranks don’t use any racist terms, serious militaries aren’t playing around. They are developing weapons systems, training forces, deploying strategic assets, positioning aircraft carriers, dominating airspace and testing the limits of America’s patience and alliances.
The development of an ARRW may yield useful research to the USAF, but at the end of the day it’s still only a small portion of the kind of seriousness that needs to start happening in the armed forces.
The US military doesn’t need more wasted money on diversity officers or changing rules to allow maternity suits and nail polish, it needs battle-hardened generals and technical wizards to come together and ensure that the fighting force remains the tip of the spear with the highest morale of any troops anywhere.
President Trump had the military funded and ready to go, but the woke insanity of Biden is already lowering morale and making people think twice about joining up. After all, who wants to serve their country by occupying the Capitol district in Washington, D.C.?
