https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7gzkn/us-successfully-test-fires-hypersonic-missile-after-russia-touts-unbeatable-weapon

DARPA and the U.S. Air Force successfully test fired a Hypersonic Airbreathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) on Monday. This is the second time this kind of advanced missile has been test fired in America and represents the efforts of its military to compete with China and Russia, the latter of which has promoted its own hypersonic missiles as being “unbeatable” weapons to cow the West.

Hypersonic weapons travel between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound, allowing them to evade defenses. The HAWC was built by Lockheed Martin in partnership with DARPA, the Pentagon’s blue-sky research agency, and the Air Force research lab. It flew at Mach 5, went higher than 60,000 feet, and traveled more than 300 miles. DARPA made the announcement on Monday.