WASHINGTON — The Pentagon isn’t giving Congress and the public a full assessment of its difficulties and challenges developing hypersonic weapons to counter those already deployed by China and Russia, according to congressional auditors.
Despite test failures with Air Force and Army systems that were supposed to become operational already, the Pentagon “is not comprehensively communicating and reporting to Congress its progress on managing risks,” the Government Accountability Office said in an audit released Monday. “Reporting comprehensive information would enable Congress to better understand and oversee” the programs.
The U.S. has spent about $12 billion since 2018 on hypersonic weapons development, and although “there has been considerable progress” the Pentagon “has yet to field its first operational” system, the GAO said in the report, which focused largely on the military’s failure to employ modern digital engineering tools to advance development of the weapons.
Hypersonic weapons are hard to track and destroy because they fly five times the speed of sound and are highly maneuverable.
Russia’s use of hypersonic weapons against Ukraine and China’s deploying of at least one weapon, the DF-17, are in contrast to the U.S.’s failed efforts. The White House and NATO this month announced plans to rotate into Germany by 2026 a U.S. Army unit equipped with the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, a plan that…
