Time to Fly – Really Fast

At my recent Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing for the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). The urgent need to develop hypersonics was sharply defined. Top leaders at the Department of Defense highlighted that Russia and China have already deployed numerous hypersonic weapons, giving them a significant advantage. Without a drastic change in our approach, we risk being unprepared for potential aggression in the Pacific or in Europe.

Hypersonic weapons testing in China

The disparity in hypersonic testing between the U.S. and China is a cause for concern. A senior intelligence analyst from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) revealed that China conducts a year’s worth of hypersonic weapon test flights in a single year, equivalent to a decade of tests in the United States. This stark difference is a key reason why the U.S. has not yet deployed a non-ballistic hypersonic delivery system, while China and Russia have multiple.

The sad truth is that it didn’t have to be this way. Going back to the 1960s, the United States was the leader in hypersonic flight. Some even say we invented it. The X-15 flew 99 times before the program was canceled in 1969. Additional work was done through the 80s and 90s on systems like X-43 and X-51, but these turned out to be one-off programs and never matured into true weapon systems. Decades of focusing on counterterrorism operations rather than on great power competition have left us in a world where both China and Russia are fielding and deploying multiple variants and types of hypersonic delivery systems. Some of which are nuclear and dual-capable, while We, meanwhile, are still struggling to test, much less deploy even a single all up round.

What these weapons can do

But why does this matter? The answer was recently articulated by Vice Admiral Wolfe, the military officer in charge of the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), in testimony before the HASC. He stated,

Hypersonic systems – capable of flying at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) – provide a combination of speed, maneuverability, and altitude that enables highly survivable, medium and intermediate-range, rapid defeat of time-critical, heavily-defended and high-value targets.

In short, these systems give us the unique ability to take out critical targets very quickly early in a conflict. We can do so confident that our weapons will penetrate dense enemy air defense and accurately reach their targets. This capability uniquely differs from subsonic, slower-moving cruise missiles or ballistic missiles that travel predictable parabolic flight paths. Not providing such a capability to our warfighters in an era of great power competition is a dereliction of duty.

To deliver hypersonic capabilities to the warfighter, two key elements are crucial: predictable and sustained funding, especially of test infrastructure, and a high-tempo cadence of flight tests. The Department of Defense must ensure that the necessary parts, components, and composites are tested in representative environments. This is so we can be confident they will survive under high-speed, high-temperature, and sustained force conditions.

Needed: more hypersonic flight tests

The Director of the Test Resources Management Center (TRMC), Dr. George Rumford, said it best in committee when Representative Jim Banks asked him how he would invest additional funding in our nation’s premier hypersonic flight test program, the Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. His answer was eloquent in its simplicity but also its clarity. “What we could do with more funding, simply put, is more flights. And that’s what we need.” He’s one hundred percent correct. More realistic flight tests are the answer to fielding these systems.

The need for increased testing and production was the driving factor for my inclusion of language in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) report directing a whole of government hypersonic development effort called the “National Hypersonic Initiative.” Again, in the FY24 NDAA, Congress acted by including Section 218 – a requirement for the Department of Defense to draft and publish biannual updates on improving hypersonic test cadence and infrastructure. While I believe these were prudent and necessary steps, forcing the administration to devise plans isn’t enough. A genuine national initiative also demands increased funding for critical organizations such as the Joint Hypersonic Transitional Office and TRMC for more MACH-TB flight tests.

Needed: a new initiative

A genuinely successful “National Hypersonic Initiative” must include the transition of DOD research and development dollars into operational weapon systems in the hands of warfighters. We succeeded in the past because we weren’t afraid of test failures – we test, fail, test again, as we learn from every failure or anomaly. The test cadence that puts us back in the driver’s seat will look like one hypersonic flight test per week – if not more. It’s time to fly – really fast.

This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.