R&I-Shannon
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WASHINGTON: How far can the Army’s hypersonic boost-glide missile — and, probably, its Naval variant — actually go? Consider this Pacific nightmare: China invades Taiwan, but all of America’s allies refuse to let the US use their territory or airspace. Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons, based on US soil in Guam, could still strike Chinese troops besieging Taipei.
Conversely, in China’s nightmare scenario, where US allies do let American missile units use their soil, LRHW batteries in Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea could strike targets more than one thousand miles inside Chinese territory. What’s more, the Navy version of the LRHW, called Conventional Prompt Strike, could launch from submarines or ships at sea anywhere in the Pacific.
“The Long Range Hypersonic Weapon provides a capability at a distance greater than 2,775 km,” an Army spokesman told me. That’s about 1,725 miles – at a minimum. The “greater than” leaves the door wide open for a significantly longer range than that.
That Army statement came after years of silence on the subject, weeks of pestering by Breaking Defense, and at least one high-level discussion among the interservice “board of directors” coordinating hypersonics programs.
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Bugs Marlowe