At the Wallops Flight Test Facility in Virginia on Wednesday, the US military carried out a successful test launch of a rocket carrying tests for the development of hypersonic weapons.
According to the Navy, the rocket carried 11 various experiments meant to test and gather information for hypersonic weapons development to support the joint Army-Navy effort.
This test was the second one conducted as part of a program aimed at enhancing land- and sea-based hypersonic capabilities. The initial examination was carried out in October 2021.
In this test, a sounding rocket was launched from the launchpad and used to conduct various experiments to gather data and learn more about the high-tech electronics and heat-resistant materials used in hypersonic missile components. Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs, who oversaw the test, said, "The launch today went really well. In reality, we've just finished reviewing our key observables, and every piece of information we sought to gather has thus far, at least preliminary, shown that we did so.
According to the Navy, a second rocket will launch on Thursday and conduct an additional 13 experiments to help with the development of hypersonic weaponry.
The Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic system and the Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon will both benefit from the data gathered from these testing. The Common Hypersonic Glide Body, a projectile mounted atop a booster rocket and coasting toward its target at speeds greater than Mach 5, will be used by both of the programs.
Weapons that are capable of traveling faster than Mach 5, or around 4,000 miles per hour, are known as hypersonic weapons. The missiles can change their height and maneuver, which enables them to avoid missile defense systems.
After China successfully launched hypersonic launches last year and Russia started utilizing hypersonic missiles in its conflict in Ukraine, the Pentagon made the development of hypersonic weapons one of its top priorities.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley referred to China's 2021 test of a hypersonic weapon as "a very major technological event" and noted that it was only one aspect of China's military capabilities.
Milley stated in October 2021 that "the Chinese military capabilities are substantially bigger than that" single test. They are quickly extending into cyberspace, outer space, and finally the conventional domains of land, sea, and air.
Before the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened for the day one early morning in 2008, artist Yuki Kihara knelt down in front of two works by French painter Paul Gauguin and examined them in the quiet, empty gallery.
The Japanese and Samoan artist was particularly drawn to "Two Tahitian Women," from 1899, which depicts two female figures in an Eden-like scene. The work was on display in the New York museum at the time. One is leaning into her friend while holding a flower, and the other is presenting the audience with a platter of fruit but isn't quite looking them in the eye. Kihara has "upcycled" (or reimagined) the painting, along with many of Gauguin's other works of art, in a photography series titled "Paradise Camp" at the Venice Biennale, fourteen years after she first saw it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.