Aviation Week propulsion editor Guy Norris’ cover story in the February 20 - March 5, 2017, reverberated through the halls of the Pentagon in early 2017 with its public revelation that the U.S. may have squandered its lead in hypersonic weapons to China and Russia. 

Norris’ account, based on a classified report by the National Academy of Sciences, warned that more urgency was needed to keep the U.S. from becoming vulnerable to a new class of superior high-speed maneuvering weapons. 

Since then, China has fielded the DF-17 and DF-27 missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV), released another HGV from space by a fractional orbital bombardment system and expanded ground- and flight-testing resources to pursue more advanced hypersonic vehicles. 

The U.S. plans to field a missile with a conventional warhead-bearing HGV later this year if the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon completes a successful test of the all-up round.

See the cover of February 20 - March 5 2017 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology 

Read Guy Norris's cover story on page 20, and find out why hypersonics capability is important and see a timeline of key U.S hypersonic vehicles, tests and projects.

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