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US must pick up hypersonic arms pace to meet competition: defence contractor
- Without naming China or Russia, Northrop Grumman official says Washington cannot lag in developing the technology
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Seong Hyeon Choiin Paris
Washington cannot “lag behind” in the development of hypersonic weapons and is ready to support its partners’ air defence capabilities, according to a leading US defence contractor.
Bridget Slayen, a senior communicator at Northrop Grumman’s international programme, said “threats all around the world” were generating interest among European and Asia-Pacific partners in the company’s air defence and missile products.
Speaking at the Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris on Tuesday, Slayen did not directly refer to China or Russia but said, “if another country [has] hypersonic missiles … we would want to [make] sure we have the best we can for deterrence factors”.
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“We don’t want to be lagging behind,” she said.
Northrop Grumman is contributing to Washington’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) – an air-breathing, scramjet-powered cruise missile that can fly at speeds greater than Mach 5.
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Washington is in competition with its geopolitical rivals China and Russia – the only two other countries with hypersonic weapon-equipped militaries – to build up stocks of missiles based on the technology.
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