Raytheon Hypersonic Weapon: The United States has successfully tested a Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX.N).

Key Highlights:

• This success marks the third successful test in a string of hypersonic weapons across different U.S. programs in development.
• The test took place as the United States and its global rivals quicken their pace to build hypersonic weapons - the next generation of arms that rob adversaries of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.
• There have been four air-breathing hypersonic weapons tests since September.
• Raytheon's product has been successful both times and Lockheed had one successful test and one failure.
• Both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) are competing for the ultimate contract award.
• The development program for the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) is being run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Note: In July, Russia said it had successfully tested a Tsirkon(Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world.

About RTX.N:

• RTX.N is an air-breathing hypersonic weapon.
• It is capable of speeds faster than five times the speed of sound, making it the third successful test of that class of weapon since 2013.
• Air-breathing vehicles use air captured from the atmosphere to achieve sustained propulsion.
• Different propulsion types work in the vacuum of space.
• The HAWC vehicle operates best in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, where speed and maneuverability make it difficult to detect in a timely way.
• It could strike targets much more quickly than subsonic missiles and has significant kinetic energy even without high explosives

Note: Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at speeds of more than five times the speed of sound, or about 6,200 kilometers (3,853 miles) per hour.