The US Navy will be equipping its attack submarines and all of its destroyers with hypersonic missiles in a bid to stave off the mounting threat posed by China in the Pacific, Trump’s top national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, said Wednesday. 'China has long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles and hypersonic [more than five times the speed of sound] missiles,' one US defense source told The Times. WHAT ARE HYPERSONIC MISSILES AND HOW DO THEY WORK? The latest class of hypersonic missiles would be smaller, guided and designed to carry conventional explosives for time-sensitive, rapid response in theatre operations. There are two kinds of approaches to solving the hypersonic challenge in missiles: 'scramjet' and 'boost glide.'

Source: Daily Mail October 21, 2020 17:26 UTC