Remember back in December 2020 when Donald Trump claimed that the United States had developed “hydrosonic” weapons–apparently using the same technology as an Oral B electric toothbrush? He claimed not only that the US had this mythical technology, but that it was already deployed and frighteningly powerful. Well, he was lying.
Not only is there no such thing as a “hydrosonic” propulsion, but the high-speed hypersonic weapons are at least one year away from deployment by the US military, Bloomberg reports. The Pentagon had hoped to deploy the missiles by September 30, 2022, but production delays will push that off by at least six months.
The hypersonic missile, being developed by Lockheed Martin, will travel more than five times the speed of sound, making it exceptionally difficult to intercept. Dubbed the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, the weapon had “recent flight test abnormalities” which will delay the first test of the entire system from October to December 2022.