US Army Is Reportedly Developing “Tactical Boost Glide” Hypersonic Weapons

As a major defence contractor of the US, the Raytheon Company has had a contract with the DARPA to develop a program of hypersonic weapons called “Tactical boost-glide” or TBG.

The hypersonic weapons with the built-in rocket engine can gain hypersonic speeds that are five times as high as those of the sound barrier.

In addition to the US, the two other powerful nations are developing and testing hypersonic weapons. They include China and Russia.

In October of three years ago, Raytheon and DARPA partnered with each other in a separate contract that was worth $174.7 million. According to the DARPA, the contract aimed to develop a concept of “Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon” and discover what an “air-launched hypersonic cruise missile” can do in reality. Also, another target is to ensure military operations will be conducted in the possibly shortest response times.

The DARPA HTV-2

This is not the first time the DARPA has implemented such projects. In fact, it has developed a lot of projects with similar concepts. For example, in 2003, an autonomous prototype of a military aircraft called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle was first introduced to the whole world. Seven years later, in April 2010, its next generation, the HTV-2, boasted its existence via the first test flights. It’s a pity that the aircraft lost the contact in the test of late April.

However, the US Army has had no intention to give up.