This summer was notable for clashes with Russia and China over Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.
And amid that backdrop, the United States advanced a multibillion-dollar push to develop new super-weapons capable of competing with our adversaries.
Indeed, with world order thrown into chaos, the U.S. rushed to complete tests for four different hypersonic weapons this past summer, registering one failure and three successes.
In May, the Operational Fires (OpFires) program run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) successfully executed its first flight test of a hypersonic weapon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
That test marked the first use of a Marine Corps logistics truck as a medium-range missile launcher. The trucks are widely available and extremely mobile, so they make a good platform for rapid deployment.
The OpFires program is scheduled to have another round of flight tests and complete a critical design review later this year.
Secondly, in July, DARPA successfully tested its Hypersonic Air-Breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).
The HAWC is a hypersonic cruise missile that launches from a bomber. This test featured Raytheon Technologies' version of the vehicle, which is competing against a Lockheed Martin version.
In March, Lockheed's vehicle set a record for hypersonic flight under scramjet power, achieving about 327 seconds of hypersonic flight. In that time, the vehicle flew 300 miles at an altitude of 65,000 ft.
Raytheon's version was also successful flying for more than 345 miles at an unspecified hypersonic speed.
And finally, after three testing failures in 2021, the Air Force's Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) system conducted two consecutive successful flight tests in May and July.
Lockheed Martin is behind this program as well. It's another air-launched hypersonic vehicle that's intended to travel 500 miles in just 10 minutes when fired from a B-52 bomber.
The July test completed the booster test phase of the experiment and it's now set to enter full system testing.
The Air Force wants ARRW to reach early operational capability in 2023.