El Jefe de Estado Mayor del Ej\u00e9rcito de los EEUU, El General Mark Milley, le dijo al Congreso que podr\u00eda desplegar armas hipers\u00f3nicas operativas para 2022.\u00a0 El Ej\u00e9rcito y la Armada , est\u00e1n en proceso de mejorar los ca\u00f1ones grandes existentes con proyectiles de hipervelocidad. Un innovador sistema llamado Hyper Velocity Projectile permitir\u00eda que los obuses pesados del Ej\u00e9rcito y las armas de cubierta de la Armada disparen proyectiles que puedan derribar los misiles bal\u00edsticos.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/3699409-1517341577.jpg?resize=768:*\")
Faced with a growing number of missile threats, the Pentagon is looking to the U.S. Army\u2019s field artillery to shoot down those incoming threats. An innovative system called the Hyper Velocity Projectile would allow the Army\u2019s heavy howitzers and the Navy\u2019s deck guns to fire projectiles that can down incoming ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military has a two-sided missile problem. America\u2019s potential adversaries field large numbers of ballistic missiles, such as the Chinese\u00a0DF-21, Russian\u00a0Iskander-M, and the North Korean\u00a0Nodong, all of which are a serious threat to both ground and sea-based U.S. forces. Iskander missiles could attack U.S. Army formations in wartime, devastating headquarters and supply units, while the DF-21 is a threat to U.S. aircraft carriers and other large ships.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon has defenses to counter these weapons, but they are expensive. The American\u00a0THAAD, Standard, and Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles can defend U.S. forces on the ground and at sea, but cost upwards of $2 million each. They’re often more expensive than the missiles they are designed to shoot down. Besides, no interceptor has a 100 percent reliability rate, forcing defending U.S. forces to allocate several of them per target. A single missile intercept gets very expensive very fast.<\/p>\n
Help is now coming from an unlikely place. The U.S. Army\u2019s\u00a0M109A6 Paladin\u00a0and\u00a0M777\u00a0155-millimeter howitzers are designed to lob high explosive, smoke, and other projectiles up to 18 miles. Someone in the Pentagon\u2019s Strategic Capabilities Office took a look at those howitzers and decided they would make great vehicles for a Hyper Velocity Projectile (HVP). Traveling at 5,600 miles an hour, the projectiles could intercept incoming ballistic missile warheads at a projected $86,000 per shot.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/3419803-1517341659.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=480:*\" "\\"\\"")
<\/div>\n