Weapons developers Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are ready to start flight tests for their new hypersonic missile, which is capable of firing a nuclear warhead at five times the speed of sound.
The two companies announced that they’d partnered up at Paris Air Show, according to Defense News. The missile is the companies’ bid for a hypersonic weaponry contract with the government, which would herald in a terrifying new age of warfare where powerful missiles travel too quickly to be intercepted.
DARPA, the U.S. military’s dedicated research division, has put out a call for developers to build what it calls an “air-breathing” hypersonic weapon, per Defense News, that should be able to take in and compress air as it flies, then combusting it to further propel and accelerate the weapon.
The weapon, according to Reuters, will be able to carry nuclear warheads as well as conventional payloads.
A flight test planned for the near future where the company will begin flying this particular class of weapon system.
