Hypersonic aircraft and missiles, which could fly as fast as a mile a second while maneuvering high enough to be safe from many existing air defenses, have the potential to transform warfare. So it’s no surprise that the United States continues to pushing ahead with research and development of these exotic flight vehicles, both gathering information on future weapon designs and conducting actual flight tests in cooperation with Australia.

As of July 12, 2017, the U.S. military and its Australian partners had concluded a round of experiments as part of the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HiFIRE) program, including an unspecified number of actual test launches. Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne specifically congratulated the team – a partnership between the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Australian Department of Defense’s Defense Science and Technology Group (DST), BAE Systems Australia, Boeing Research and Technology, and the University of Queensland – "on another successful hypersonic flight at Woomera test range," according to FlightGlobal, suggesting there may have only been one actual flight in this particular case.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/12456/the-united-states-and-au...