US launches hypersonic missile as Russia tests its nuclear weapons

Europe, News, US October 28, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

The U.S. military launched a hypersonic missile on October 26, from the coast of Virginia. The test came on the same day as Russia conducted its first nuclear drills since the invasion of Ukraine.

Pentagon confirmed that the hypersonic missile test was successful. The rocket was launched from NASA’s Wallop Flight Facility’s launchpad in Virginia. It was carrying more than a dozen hypersonic components that were to be tested for a new class of nuclear-capable hypersonic weapons developed by the United States.

A U.S.-based nuclear security and administration research facility, Sandia National Laboratories, oversaw the launch and declared the test to be successful. According to a statement released by the U.S. Navy, tests were conducted to evaluate the hypersonic weapon’s communications and navigation equipment as well as to test the advanced materials that can withstand the heat in a “realistic hypersonic environment.”

Hypersonic weapons are expected to become the next generation of weapons. Russia and China already possess advanced hypersonic missiles capable of carrying out nuclear strikes while the U.S. is rapidly catching up with its rivals.

All major U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies are working to develop their own hypersonic weapons technologies.

A hypersonic glide vehicle is deployed into the upper atmosphere through a rocket. Such vehicles can travel at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, which is about 6,200 kilometers per hour.

^{The U.S. Department of Defense launches a sounding rocket from NASA’s launch range at Wallops Flight Facility carrying hypersonic weapon experiments that will inform the development of the hypersonic class of weapons, on Wallops Island, Virginia, U.S., on October 26, 2022. (Image Credit: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)}

U.S. hypersonic missile test came on the same day as Russia carried out its largest nuclear weapons drill since the invasion of Ukraine. The timing of Russia’s nuclear drills coincided with U.S. hypersonic missile test, which comes at a time when NATO is conducting its own annual nuclear exercise, Steadfast Noon, in Northwestern Europe that would continue until October 30.

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the drills. According to the Kremlin “Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with the ground, sea, and air strategic deterrence forces, during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place.”

During the drills, a series of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles were tested. A land-based nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile Yars was fired from the northern Plesetsk launch site.

Several missile tests were also conducted at the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The drills also included tests of a submarine-launched ballistic missile Sineva at the Barents Sea in the Arctic. As part of the aerial exercise, a Tu-95 strategic bomber launched a cruise missile at a land-based target.

^{Russia’s Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is test-fired as part of nuclear drills from a launch site in Plesetsk, northwestern Russia. (Image Credit: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/via AP)}

Russia’s elaborate demonstration of its nuclear capabilities comes at a time when its Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has been contacting his counterparts from the U.S., NATO, India, and China to show concerns about an alleged “dirty bomb” that Ukraine plans to detonate on its own people in order to blame Russia.

Russian President Putin has also repeated such claims, however, Ukraine as well as its NATO partners have rejected the claims calling them “absurd” and “dangerous”.