The Pentagon announced Monday that the United States will spend $1.3 billion to develop satellites that can better track threats from hypersonic missiles, announcing two new contracts that will put detection and tracking systems in orbit by 2025.
28 satellites
In turn, Derek Turner, Director of the Space Development Agency, said that the two decades will provide 28 satellites, as the United States moves to significantly expand and enhance its ability to confront the growing threats from Russia and China, both of which have made great strides in the field of developing hypersonic missiles. Which are difficult to track and shoot down, because they have greater maneuverability in flight than conventional weapons that travel in predictable paths.
Last year, China tested what US officials said was a hypersonic missile, and Russia used this type of weapon to launch strikes in Ukraine in its war there.
“Russia and China are working on developing and testing hypersonic vehicles — these are highly maneuverable advanced missiles,” Turner told Pentagon reporters on Monday. “These satellites are specifically designed to follow the next generation of threats so we can detect and track weapons… that exceed Its speed is the speed of sound and its point of impact is predicted.”
Additional financing
Additional funding for the program has been provided by Congress in response to concerns in the Indo-Pacific region, and in response to China’s rapid military development.
Hypersonic weapons are defined as anything more than five times the speed of sound, approximately 6,100 kilometers per hour.
ICBMs are well above that threshold, but they are moving in a predictable trajectory, enabling them to be intercepted.
