🚀 The U.S. is accelerating the development of the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM Speed Glide Missile.

🚀 U.S. is accelerating the development of the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, a supersonic cruise missile for remotely attacking key targets.

HACM, developed by Raytheon in partnership with Northrop Grumman, uses a Scramjet-type engine, with the booster rocket accelerating the weapon to high speed, before the engine takes over to maintain Mach 5 or above speeds.

⚡ Unlike a dump missile that rises into a highly curved trajectory, HACM is designed to fly in the atmosphere and reorient en route, requiring radar and defense systems to detect, track and calculate intercept points within a limited time.

The goal of the program is to increase options for U.S. combat aircraft to be able to hit high-value targets or targets that need to be dealt with urgently, without bringing aircraft too close to dense air defense areas.

📌 However, HACM is not yet a fully deployed weapon; details of range, maximum speed and capabilities are largely undisclosed, while the GAO once reported project delays, costs likely to exceed estimates and may need to reduce the number of test flights to maintain its budget framework.

On defense, the U.S. is also developing HBTSS satellites and a network of sensors in space to enhance its ability to continuously track supersonic threats.

So this competition is not just about "who builds weapons faster," but also who detects and stops them first.

Sources: U.S. GAO, RTX, U.S. Department of Defense

# deepkub # HACM # HypersonicMissile # Defense technology # United States Air Force