Hypersonic weapons race gathers speed.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Technology Tomorrow

* And they're off! The race to field the first hypersonic weapon is officially on. And woe be to the losers.

The United States is joined by China, Russia--and perhaps even India. For what nation wouldn't want a weapon that closes in on its target at Mach 10, or about 7,500 mph?

The hypersonic arms race is little talked about outside of military circles, but it should be. The winner would presumably have a huge strategic advantage over its rivals.

Hypersonic vehicles are generally defined as those traveling at speeds greater than Mach 5, roughly 3,840 mph. They are most often envisioned as cruise missiles, or gliders boosted by rockets. They could carry conventional weapons, nuclear warheads as well as sensors.

Any of these vehicles could use their speed to avoid interception and to penetrate deep into enemy territory. If successful, experts have said it is a game-changing technology that will disrupt warfare.

For example, the United States has spent northwards of $ 1 trillion since the 1950s to figure out how to basically "shoot a bullet with a bullet" and destroy an incoming inter-continental ballistic missile with another missile.

After about six decades, the Missile Defense Agency has managed, under highly controlled circumstances, to intercept an ICBM where the red team's missile closes in on its target in a predictable trajectory.

The Chinese appear to be testing a hypersonic glider that could defeat that by maneuvering as it closes in on its target. Dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, it is launched by an ICBM, then glides back to Earth at Mach 10. More importantly, while doing so, it could move from side to side. If hitting a bullet with a bullet wasn't already hard enough, try hitting a bullet that changes course.

China has conducted four tests of the WU-14 so far in the last 18 months, according to a report in the Washington Times.

The United States has dabbled in hypersonic technology, but is moving at a deliberate pace. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force conducted two tests in 2010 and 2011 of its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, a rocket-glider system similar to the WU-14. Neither flight lasted its intended duration. DARPA then declared that the program was finished.

The X-51 Waverider, a hypersonic cruise missile launched from an aircraft that uses a scramjet engine to reach its Mach speeds, had four tests from 2010 to 2013, the last setting a record at more than four minutes of flight time. That...