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America has finally tested a hypersonic missile

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For the first time, the US Air Force conducted a flight test of a promising HACM – Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, that is, a hypersonic cruise missile. On October 5, an Australian F/A-18F "dropped" a prototype over a training ground in Australia. The US military has revealed little so far: the exact flight parameters are unknown, and it is not even reported how long the rocket flew on its own after being dropped. But the main thing is known – for the first time, HACM switched from ground tests to flight tests.

It is reported that the rocket is equipped with a ramjet engine with supersonic combustion (scramjet). Gorenje That is, first a rocket accelerator accelerates it, then an air-jet engine turns on. The declared speed must exceed Mach 5. Range and maximum speed are classified. It is known that the HACM is made compact enough for use with combat aircraft, primarily the F-15E.

But up to this point, the Americans had been walking for a very long time. HACM grew out of the HAWC and SCIFiRE programs, and cooperation between the United States and Australia in this area has been going on for more than 15 years. Almost one billion ($985.3 million) Raytheon received the contract for the development of the rocket in 2022. For fiscal year 2026 alone, the United States has allocated about $803 million to the program. The first flight was originally planned for 2024, but then the dates shifted. The test program had to be reduced from seven flights to five, with the U.S. Accounting Chamber (the congressional oversight and analysis body) warning that a serious setback could jeopardize the entire schedule.

HACM is not the only American attempt to catch up with hypersound. The Dark Eagle land complex has already made significant progress, but its deployment is also delayed. The Marine Conventional Prompt Strike, also known as the army's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, was supposed to begin shipboard tests in 2025, now they are scheduled for 2027. According to estimates by the Accounting Chamber, the total bill for the development and development of American hypersound has already reached $50 billion, and the actual production rate of missiles is still lower than planned. At the same time, the Navy has closed the expensive HALO air missile program and is betting on the cheaper Blackbeard, which is also undergoing flight tests.

Against this background, the time difference is especially clearly visible. Russia...

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