Artificial Intelligence and Hypersonics — Getting More Money and New Pentagon Office?

On April 19, 2018, the U. S. Air Force awarded $1 billion to Lockheed Martin in Huntsville, Alabama, to develop a hypersonic missile basically to catch up with Russia and China in the modern hypersonic arms race. Hypersonic flight is through the Earth’s atmosphere at about 56 miles (90km)  up and at speeds above Mach 5. That means more than 3,835 miles per hour. Hypersonic craft and weapons are revolutionary because their advanced speeds make it harder for an enemy to confront and destroy. Further, hypersonic missiles can move at such high speed that their impact with matter would be extremely destructive even without warheads. That’s why Russia’s Vladimir Putin was bragging on March 1, 2018, about his “invincible military missile.”